Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	act_n	church_n	communion_n	1,337	5	9.7715	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61636	A vindication of Their Majesties authority to fill the sees of the deprived bishops in a letter out of the country occasioned by Dr. B---'s refusal of the bishoprick of Bath and Wells.	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing S5679; ESTC R9468	8,641	36

Authority is to set up a Pope or a Presbytery or a National Synod above the Supream Power and we may as well say at this day that the Supream Power has no Authority to make a Bishop because by the ancient Canons and Practice of the Church a Bishop ought to be freely and canonically elected by the other Bishops of the Province or by the Clergy and People of the Diocess as that it cannot depose a Bishop from the exercise of his Episcopal Authority within their Dominions without a Synod or Council 3. When a Church is incorporated into the State an offence against the State is a just reason to depose a Bishop from the exercise of his Episcopal Authority in such a State Especially if such Bishop or Bishops wholly disown the Authority and Government of the State and refuse to submit to it The denial of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes was thought a good Reason to depose Bishops and to deny their Civil Authority is somewhat more than that This is as certain and evident as that the Church is and must be Incorporated into the State for if Bishops who oppose and disown the Authority of the State must not be deposed from the Exercise of their Authority in such a State then the Church must be divided from the State and be independent on it such Men may be Bishops of the Church who are no Subjects of the State which is a contradiction to the very Notion of a Church incorporated with the State 4. And therefore we must distinguish between an Ecclesiastical and Canonical deposition of a Bishop for Heresie or other Ecclesiastical Crimes and a State deprivation The first concerns the Character and Ecclesiastical Communion it is the censure of the Church which concerns him as a Bishop and when it is ratified and confirmed not only by a Provincial or National Synod but by a General Council such a deposed Bishop is no longer a Bishop of the Catholick Church and no Christian must Communicate with him as a Bishop But a State-deprivation does not concern the Character such a Man may be a Bishop of the Catholick Church still if he do not fall under Church-Censures for Heresie or other Crimes but it only concerns the Exercise of his Episcopal Authority in any Diocess within the Dominions of that State or enjoying any Ecclesiastical Benefice in it And if we will not allow the Supreme Power of a Nation to judge who shall be Bishops in their Dominions and enjoy the Revenues of the Church which are the Gift of the State you leave the Supream Power no Authority or Jurisdiction over Ecclesiastical Persons 5. And this makes a great difference between succeeding an Orthodox Bishop uncanonically deposed and succeeding an Orthodox Bishop deprived by an Act of State If a Bishop be deposed by an Heretical Synod upon false suggestions and publickly known to be false and malicious and be own'd and acquitted by a Council of Orthodox Bishops it is Usurpation to invade his See a breach of Catholick Communion and a Schism in the Catholick Church which was the Case of Athanasius and George of Cappadocia who succeeded him But if a Bishop otherwise Orthodox is guilty of such an Offence against the State that he is deprived of the Exercise of his Episcopal Office neither the Faith nor the Communion of the Church is concerned in it but only the Authority of the State which obliges both the Clergy and the Laity in such cases and when neither the Catholick Faith nor Catholick Communion are concern'd it can be no Ecclesiastical Offence to succeed in such a Bishoprick but a due submission and compliance with that Authority to which the Church in a Christian Nation ought to be subject The reason why these Matters are not so acurately distinguished by some Men is because they were not at first distinguished when the Empire became Christian and the Church was at first Incorporated into the State The Zeal of the Christian Emperors for the Service of the Church and that great Opinion which at that time they deservedly had of the Piety and Prudence of the Governours of the Church made them leave the Government of the Church in the same state they found it in when the Church was a distinct Society from the State and in consequence of this they reserved all Causes relating to Bishops to the Cognizance of their own Synods without distinguishing between Offences against the State which properly belong to a Civil Cognizance and those which were of a pure Ecclesiastical Nature This soon created great trouble to Princes and by degrees grew into the Omnipotent Power of the Bishop of Rome which domineered over Emperors themselves and set the Church above the State The Reformation of our Church began with the Reformation of this Abuse and Church-Usurpation and restored our Princes to that Supremacy which both the Laws of God and the reason and nature of Sovereign Power gives them over all Persons in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil And now an Offence against the State is as just a Reason for a State-Deprivation by the sole Authority of the State without the Authority of Synods or Councils as Heresie and Schism and other Crimes are of Ecclesiastical Censures This Authority as I observed before the Jewish Kings exercised even over their High-Priests as Solomon deposed Abiathar for following Adonijah to make him King and placed Zadock in his stead which was a pure State-Quarrel and done by his sole Authority without consulting the Sanhedrim in it Thus when Iudea was under the Government of the Romans they changed the High-priests every Year tho by the Institution of God it was for Life and this in our Saviour's Days who never reproved them for it nor separated himself or his Disciples from the Communion of such Schismatical Vsurping High-priests who succeeded in the places of their living Predecessors without a Canonical Deposition The Grand Signior at this Day makes and unmakes the Patriarch of Constantinople at pleasure and no Man blames the Patriarch who succeeds Dr. Sherlock in his Preface to the Case of Allegiance took notice of this as matter of Fact without enquiring into the Reasons His Answerer had nothing to return to it but by denying the legal Authority of this Government which is just nothing to the purpose For if a legal Government by their Authority and Supremacy can depose Bishops and promote New ones then all their Arguments against succeeding in the Sees of such Bishops as are not Canonically deposed by an Ecclesiastical Authority are utterly lost and besides that if this Answer be good no man ought to question these new Promotions who owns the Authority of the present Government The truth is the same Objections which are now made against the Promotion of these new Bishops are equally strong and as eagerly urg'd at this Day by the Papists against our first Reformers For they were promoted to Bishopricks while the former Popish Bishops

were living and not Canonically deposed by any Act of the Church but only by the Authority of the State and there denying the Supremacy of the King was one and none of the least of those Doctrines which they were deposed for and yet that only rejects the King's Ecclesiastical Authority and therefore as it is only an Offence against the State so it is a much less Offence than utterly to renounce their Authority in Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes as our deprived Bishops now do I shall not need to enlarge on these things which are plain and obvious at the first Proposal If you have any opportunity of seeing Dr. B desire him to consider again of it and though he may repent too late to do himself any good yet if he discover his mistake common Justice to the Government under whose Protection he lives and to Their Majesties to whom he has sworn Allegiance and who had placed such a Mark of Favour and Honour on him had he known how to value it obliges him publickly to own his Mistake which is the only recompence he can now make I am SIR Your Humble Servant FINIS Books lately printed for Richard Chiswell A New History of the Succession of the Crown of England and more particularly from the Time of King Egbert till King Henry the VIII Collected from those Historians who wrote of their own Times A Discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a New Separation on account of the Oaths With an Answer to the History of Passive Obedience so far as relates to Them A Vindication of the said Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a New Separation from the Exceptions made against it in a Tract called A Brief Answer to the said Discourse c. An Account of the Ceremony of Investing His Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh with the Order of the Garrer at Berlin Iune 6. 1690. By Iames Iohnston Esq and Gregory King Esq His Majesties Commissioners Dr. Freeman's Sermon at the Assizes at Northampton before the Lord Chief Justice Pollexfen August 26. 1690. His Thanksgiving Sermon before he House of Commons November 5. 1690. Dr. Tenison's Sermon before the Queen concerning the Wandring of the Mind in God's Service Feb. 15. 1690. His Sermon before the Queen of the Folly of Atheism Feb. 22. 1690. Dr. Fowler 's Sermon before the Queen March 22. 1690. The Bishop of Sarum's Sermon at the Funeral of the Lady Brook Feb. 19. 1690. His Fast Sermon before the King and Queen April 29. 1691. Mr. Fleetwood's Sermon at Christ Church on St. Stephen's day A True and Impartial History of the Most Material Occurrences in the Kingdom of Ireland during the Two last Years With the Present State of both Armies Published to prevent Mistakes and to give the World a Prospect of the future Success of Their Majesties Arms in that Nation Written by an Eye-witness to the most Remarkable Passages A full and impartial Account of the secret Consults Negotiations Stratagems and Intregues of the Romish Party in Ireland from 1660. to 1889. for the Settlement of Popery in that Kingdom A Ground Plot of the strong Fort of Charlemont in Ireland with the Town River Marshes Boggs and Places adjacent Drawn by Captain Hobson price 6 pence An Exact Ground Plot of London-Derry with the River Woods Ways and Places adjacent by the same Captain Hobson price 6 d. There is preparing and will shortly be Published A Prospect of Limerick bearing due West exactly shewing the Approaches of the English Army with the Batteries and Breach ANglia Sacra Sive Collectio Historiarum partim antiquitus partem recenter scriptarum De Archiepiscopis Episcopis Angliae à Prima Fidei Christianae susceptione ad Ann. 1540. Nunc primum in Lucem editum Pars Prima de Archiepiscopis Episcopis Ecclesiarum Cathedralium quas Monachi possederunt Opera Henrici Whartoni This Book will be ready for Publication by the Fourth of Iune next Subscriptions will be taken till the First of Iuly Proposals for the same may be had of Richard Chiswell and most other Booksellers in London and the Country