Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	council_n	tradition_n	4,496	5	9.0822	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

all these add what in conclusion is principally necessary to wit that the Britannick Church after the very sacred Canon of the Scriptures such as is defined in the † Conc. Laodic Can. ult ancient Councils adheres closely unto tradition truly universal as well Ecclesiastick as Apostolical both which lean on the testimony or authority of the truly Catholick Church according to that in Vincentius of Lirinum his fam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essay of ancient Catholicism Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. That which every where which alwaies which by all c. It appeareth that the Britannick Church bears upon these two Catholick principles to wit Holy Scripture before and above all and then Universal Tradition not onely because the general Council of Nice wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient Customes are underset and established but also the Britannick Church in a * The first Synod after her Articles of Religion were fixed An. 13. Regin Elizab. Provincial Council of her own hath most expresly ordained by a special Canon Wee conclude therefore That the Britannick Church such as shee was lately under Episcopacy rightly constituted was no way Schismatical neither materially nor formally since that she neither erected unto her self Chair against Chair which is the foul brand of Schismaticks in St. Cyprian Nor did that Church cut her self off from Episcopacy or made a Congregation at any time unto her self against her Canonical Bishops which ever is the formal character of Schismaticks by the definition of the o Concil Constantinop 1. Can. 6. vel 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Woe call them Hereticks which rend themselves from and set up Synagogues or Conventicles against our Canonical Bishops c. Constantinopolitan Council much less did she shake off her Bishops and with the continued succession of Bishops by consequence the succession of her Priests not interrupted as I may say from the very cradle of her Christianism And as for lawful ordination as well in the material part the imposition of hands as in the formal wherein signally by a set form of words both praerogative of Ordination and also jurisdiction is conferred on the Bishops this her ordination I say rightly and canonically performed by the Catholick Bishops shee proves out of the very Records or Monuments of Consecrations So that no man can by deserved right charge upon the Britannick Churches that ancient reproach of Schismaticks in p Matthew Parler a godly and learned man c. who was Chaplain to Henry the eighth c. being duly elected to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury after a Sermon preached the Holy Spirit invoked and the Eucharist celebrated by the imposition of hands of three Bishops in former times William Barloe of Bathe Iohn Scory of Chichester Miles Coverdale of Exceter and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford was consecrated at Lambeth Hee afterward consecrated Edmund Grindal an excellent Divine to bee Bishop of London c. See Camdens Annals of the Affairs of England part 1. ad an 1559. Tertullian Vos ex vobis nati est is You are new Upstarts born yesterday of your selves Nay so tenacious are the genuine Britains of the ancient Religion and by consequence of her Catholick Discipline that for the intire restitution of their Bishops their most Gracious King himself Charls Emperour of Great Britain chuseth rather to suffer so many and so most undeserved injuries even which is horrid to be spoken to death it self which in dishonour and contempt of all q In good earnest this hainous fact so strikes at all Monarchs through the side of one King of Great Britain that unless it incense all Kings and Princes whatsoever as to a most just indignation so to a serious revenge it may be feared that the contagion of such a damnable example will diffuse its infection into Neighbour-Kingdomes it so threatneth and menaceth the destruction and ruine of Monarchy it self since that in the most seditious Epilogue of the perfidious Covenant in most express words they exhort and animate other Christian Churches as they love to speak which either groan under the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny or that onely are in danger of it that they would joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant with them forsooth to the enlargement of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ c. You hear the words yee Christian Princes yea and you see their deeds It is the affair of you all that is acted but of such among you especially whom particularly they will seem to have marked out with that black character of Antichristianism which in the sense of these Traitours is not so common to every meridian but that it seems to threaten some Region before other with its malignity God avert all of that nature portended by it Christian Monarchs those most desperate Rebels threaten to their King and not long since potent Monarch then abolish Episcopacy as mindful of that r At the Coronation of the King of England the Arch-Bishop consecrating in the name of the whole Clergy twice adjures the King in these words ss 1. † This is translated out of the Latin Copy My Liege Will you grant conserve and by your oath confirm the Laws Customes and Liberties given unto your Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor The King answers I do grant and take upon mee to keep them Also ss 5. The Arch-Bishop advertiseth the King in these words My Lord the King Wee beseech you that you will conserve to us and the Churches committed to our trust all Canonical Priviledges and that you will protect and defend us so as every good King ought to be a Protector and Defender of Bishops and Churches put under his Government The King almost in the same words promiseth That hee to the uttermost of his power God helping him will keep the Canonical priviledges of the Churches and that hee will defend the Bishops themselves Afterward the King being lead to the Altar there touching with his hand the Holy Bible solemnly swears That hee will perform all these things adding moreover this Imprecation to be trembled at So help mee God and the contents of this holy Book I thought fit to insert here this form of the Kings Oath taken out of the Royal Records themselves that it may bee made manifest to the whole Christian world That His Majesties magnanimity and constancy hitherto is to be imputed not to pertinacy but Religion whatsoever otherwise is said by such as blaspheme or reproach him with their 〈◊〉 language Oath to be trembled at whereby hee religiously bound himself to God and the Church at his Coronation The Clergy and likewise better part of the Nobility as also the Britannick people dispersed here and there Rivals with their King in this part of his Religion refuse not to undergo the loss of all their estates persecutions banishments yea are ready to indure all kindes of extremity to their very last

matter of fact whereto the Roman Bishop himself that I may speak the truth as gently as may be was at least accessory and therefore can be no competent Judge of the cause but rather if the business would bear a controversie it were to be presented to a truly Oecumenical or general free Council rightly and legitimately called Now so far is it from that the Britannick Church even refused to present her self or her cause before the Tribunal of such a Council that the Britannick Church rather holds a general Council to be above any Patriarch even the Roman himself according to that pair of Councils held at Basil and Constance This the Britannick holds together with the Gallican Church a renewing of the ancient concord with which Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as conscience permits were even at this time much to be wished it being manifest that above a thousand years since much friendship passed between the Gallican and the Britannick Church even at that time when the Britannick Church did not communicate with the Roman and certainly if both parties would mutually understand one the other without prejudice and that of the two which is in the extream would remit of its rigour that consent of the Britannick Church with the Gallican would not be so improbable as it seems at the first aspect to them that are ignorant of both or either But this onely by the way To our purpose again Wee say the Britannick Church doth so reverence the General Councils that she hath provided by a special Statute That not any one endued with spiritual jurisdiction shall declare or administer his Ecclesiastical censures or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresie but onely such as before had been determined ordered or adjudged to be heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council This was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the very Catholick sense of the Britannick Church and her due esteem of General Councils which the old Parliament openly testified in the solemn Assembly of that whole Kingdome for we disdain to make mention in this place of the Cabals or Conventicles now adayes which reign in the turbulent rebellious State of that Church and Republick for those swarms of Sects are onely the Cancers and Impostemes of that lately famous Church which no more belong to the sacred body of the Britannick Church than a wenn doth to the body natural And truly if heretofore the great Mother of us all the Catholick Church seemed almost universally to be utterly swallowed by a sudden deluge of Arrianism what wonder is it if the Britannick Church but one of her daughters lye under the same fate for a time This for the first point Concerning the second it is to be very much observed That the Britannick Church at the time of her withdrawing was not truly in fact much less by right subject to the Bishop of Rome having been years before her reformation under Edward 6. altogether exempt from the Roman Patriarchate to wit by the Imperial Authority and by that of Prince Henry the eighth whom to have been impowred to do it by right appears before in the first Position But what occasion soever of the withdrawing at that time shall bee pretended it cannot prejudice the Royal Right or any way derogate from the ancient Custome of the Britannick Church Nay the British Nation could not have opposed either of the two without being hainously guilty both of Rebellion and Schism especially since that whole business of the Church's restitution was transacted with the express consent of the Britannick Clergy then Romane a Provincial Council of which alone in defect of a General was at that time the supream meerly Ecclesiastick tribunal of the Britannick Nation whereunto onely the Britannick Church ought to be or indeed could be subject because in that article of time no Council truly general sate As for that of Trent which afterward followed it was at highest onely Patriarchal to which consequently the Britannick Church before exempt by lawful authority from the Romane Patriarchate was no way subject Whereas therefore the Britannick Church can be said to have opposed it self to no lawful Ecclesiastick Authority at all which notwithstanding inseparably is of the essence of Schism certain it is that Church is no way Schismatical but on the contrary side the Britannick Church according to the singular moderation and Christian love she perpetually sheweth toward all Christians as she keeps off from her external Communion no Christian of what ever communion he be so that he hold the foundation intire but unless a most just excommunication put a bar opens her Catholick bosome and draws forth her holy breasts to any genuine Nursling of the Catholick Church so as well in Faith as the internal Communion of Charity as likewise in the external Communion of the Catholick Hierarchy and Liturgy yea and Ceremonies also she yet cherisheth and professeth an undivided peace and consent with the Catholick Church from which the Britannick Church never did nor ever will separate her self as being alwaies most tenacious of the whole truly Catholick foundation For one thing it is on the hinge of which just distinction is the whole state of this great controversie turned one thing I say it is to separate her self from the Catholick or Universal Church and to form to her self a Congregation or Religion apart different from the Catholick Church as in times past the Donatists did another not to communicate in all with some one particular Church as for instance the Latine or rather to abstain from the external worship which is used by some persons in some places under an express Protestation for thence is sprung the modest and innocent title of Protestants under Protestation I say so soon as the occasion of scandal should be taken away of reconciliation and under a vow not so much out of any absolute necessity as for publick peace and Catholick unity's sake of returning to the Communion of that particular Church from which that the Protestants were estranged yea in the latter age violently driven away by thunder and sword and fire is better known out of history than to want any proof or further amplification It appears therefore out of the Premises that the Britannick Church constituted in this as I may say her passive state of separation from the communion of the Bishop of Rome is wholly free from all blemish of Schism by reason that the Bishop of Rome himself first of all interrupted Christian communion with the Britannick Church and yet further inderdicteth the Britannick Church his communion and in that again the Pope extolleth himself above a General Council lawfully called unto which the Britannick Church hath ever attributed the decisive judgement while in his Bull of the Lords Supper he forbids an appeal from himself to a general Council To

of the supream jurisdiction from the Politick Authority Therefore the Royal Power remained the same it was before both Legislative and Iudiciary as well in Sacred as Civil Affairs For Moses as King in Iesurun was constituted by God himself the keeper as well of both Trumpets as Tables now what pertained to Moses as King is every Kings due This very comparative Argument as rightly consequent from Moses to Constantine the Great after the revolutions of so many ages Eusebius five or six times applies to establish the Imperial Authority about the Convocation and confirmation of the first Nicene Council Fourthly As Moses not Aaron delivered the Ceremonial Law so long after Moses King David instituted the courses of the Priest and Solomon thrust out Abiathar the High Priest Fifthly When Christ inaugurated his Apostles hee furnished them with great powers of his own such as are the Administration of Sacraments and power of the Keyes but all that Christ bestowed on his Apostles cumulatively nought at all privatively for indeed our Lord Christ would neither by the Evangelical Priesthood nor his whole first Advent have any thing detracted from the Jurisdiction or Authority of the Civil Powers nor that Kings because Christians should have their Prerogative abated Sixthly Wee say That Kings as Kings ought to be the Liturgick Officers of Christ and so far Kings in their degree may yea ought to be Ministers of the Church and as it were External Bishops of the Ecclesiastick Government as Constantine the Great said wisely of himself That same the magnificent Title of Christ himself Prince of the Kings of the earth seems to erect for all Kings of right although in fact most of Kings are not yet by vertue of this title they are obliged all to bee Christians Seventhly We say That there are very many things pertaining to the external Polity of the Church which although they belong properly and primarily to the King alone yet in case of necessity as they say and secondarily are out of course devolved upon the Clergy For instance To call Synods ordain Fasts or Festivals distinguish Parishes into Diocesses or Provinces to fix and ratifie the Hierarchical degrees of Bishops so as this man is a Bishop that a Primate the third a Metropolitane that this Bishop should be under the jurisdiction of that Metropolitane and contrarily upon some weighty or lawful either occasion necessity or publick commodity of the Church that this should be exempt from the other under whom hee was before These and very many of like sort according to the various state of the Church pertain both to the King and Priest For those two most different times of the Church's condition ought not to be confounded I mean of persecution and peace Because in time of persecution under Infidel Kings so long as Princes are altogether and every way dis-joyned from the Church and the Church from Princes the divine order ceaseth and the Royal Succession suffer's necessarily interruption I say interruption not abolition For so long the case is plainly extraordinary and while so the Woman is in the Desart and the Church supplies this defect of Princes as she can As when the Husband is absent or sick the Matron governs the Family But the divine Positive Order re-entring the ordinary state of the Church returneth also so soon as Kings resume the Christian Religion the partition-wall presently falls down and then by due right Kings take again their exteriour power over the Christian Church Otherwise we should say that in order to the Government of the Church there ought to be no difference between Pharaoh and Moses between Nero and Constantine nor as to dominion in sacred Affairs and the right use thereof that this Emperour communicates any more with the Church than the other which would be dissonant not onely from right Reason but also from holy Scripture Therefore the Emperour so soon as hee becomes Christian ought to obtain his restitution intire And this in this Argument is the matter of right or general Reason which wee lay down as the Base of that right which belongs to the Emperour in establishing the external limits of the Ecclesiastical Government As to the matter of fact or practice that is both general or Catholick and also special The general practice beside the assumption of the second Argument which was proved before consists in an induction of Councils as well General as Provincial all which as they supplicate from the Emperour himself the very convocation of councils so do they submit to the same Emperour every one of their decrees even those in matters of Faith which although as to their intrinsec Authority they depend onely on the Word of God and Truth it self yet as to their extrinsec Authority they depend on the Imperial Sentence but if those of Faith how much more those which are onely of the bare Regiment of the Church such as is the establishment of Patriarchates lye all under the Imperial decrees to wit in this sense That the Canon of the Church may have the force of a Law that wholly proceeds from the Authority of the Prince Thence is it that every one of the Ancient Councils all the Ancient Catholick Bishops even the Bishop of Rome himself present them alwaies to the Emperour to be supplied amended perfected and so humbly petition from the Emperour not a naked protection or late execution but an intire ratification and confirmation of every Council without which as to the external effect they are to become unattired void and plainly of no force Concerning this Truth I appeal not onely to the Councils of Cavalion Mentz and Toures with the rest of the less sort but I produce the very four general Councils concerning the first of which viz. that of Nice Eusebius expresly relates that the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirming the decrees of the Synod did fortifie them as it were with his seal I appeal also to the first Council of Constantinople and the very Epistle of the Council to the Emperour Theodosius wherein all the holy Fathers petition the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to have the Suffrage of the Synod confirmed Yea I appeal to Leo himself Pope of Rome whom I beleeve not to have been of the most abject spirit among those in that Pontificate who in every one of his Letters to three Emperours humbly petitions not commands much less decrees but beseecheth supplicates that the Emperour would command c. But it may suffice to have declared these things though somewhat at large yet but by the way to the evincing by a general rule from the whole to the part That the rights of Patriarchates introduced by Custome confirmed by Councils were established by Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the last lemme of our Position The same will appear more evidently in the special practice of the Catholick Emperours For by what Authority Iustinian the Emperour