Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	prove_v	3,145	5	6.1841	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93885	Some observations and annotations upon the Apologeticall narration, humbly submitted to the Honourable Houses of Parliament; the most reverend and learned Divines of the Assembly, and all the Protestant Churches here in this island, and abroad.	Steuart, Adam.	1644 (1644)	Wing S5492; Thomason E34_23; ESTC R21620	55,133	77

incompossibiles A whole thing cannot be wholly or all wayes or according to all its possible Modifications for many of them severally or apart are possible which conjunctly are incompossible if I may so expresse my self or rather impossible So a man may be white and he may be black but he cannot be white and black together for these two qualities being contrary are impossible or incompatible one with another If then feeding either by way of teaching or ruling or the power to feed be taken in actu primo viz. for the facultie to feed this Proposition The combined Eldership or a Classicall or Synodall Assembly and every particular Elder considered apart and separated from the combined Presbyteries have power to feed teach or rule all particular Churches is true And as for the particular Elders which may seem the most absurd it appeareth cleerly for if they had it not how could ye or they Preach in sundry and divers particular Churches as ye do out of your own particular Churches If it be answered that ye do it onely Occasionally and not Ordinarily I reply That before ye can do it either Occasionally or Ordinarily ye must have a power to do it absolutely for actus secundus supponit primum the second act supposeth the first or all actions suppose some active power from whence they proceed for a man that is no Minister can neither Preach Ordinarily nor Occasionally Item It is a certain Maxime in Logick that a Parte in modo ad Totum argument amur affirmativè ut est homo albus Ergo est homo We argue from a modified part or taken with some limitation or modification to the whole as if I say this is a white man Ergo this is a man So I say this man may Preach occasionally Ergo this man may Preach or have Authoritie to Preach For Power or Authoritie to Preach is Totum in modo and Power or Authoritie to Preach occasionally or ordinarily are partes in modo If it be objected That if every particular Minister hath Power or Authoritie to Preach in every Church or Congregation then every Minister is an universall Pastour as the Apostles But so it is not Ergo. Answ I deny the Consequence of the first Proposition for an Apostle not onely hath an universall Vocation to teach all particular Churches and Flocks but also to teach all particular and ordinary Pastours or Ministers of all particular Churches and Flocks 2. Item The Vocation of the Apostles was immediately from God 3. They were infallible in Doctrine 4. Endowed with extraordinarie Gifts 5. They had no particular Mission to restrain them to any particular Church And these four last Conditions were most conveniently annexed unto the Universalitie of their Charge which cannot be said of ordinary and particular Ministers If it be replied At least they differ not from them in the Universalitie of their Charge but onely in some Accidents as in Infallibilitie some extraordinarie Gifts c. that are meerly Extrinsecall unto the Charge and to the Universalitie thereof I answer First That these Accidents are not meerly Extrinsecall unto the Universalitie of the Apostolicall Charge but Intrinsecally annexed unto it by Gods Ordinance by Congruitie and Morally since it could not be Universally exercised without them Secondly For the better cleering of this I observe That to the Charge of a Minister three things are necessary 1. A generall Vocation to Preach and that not unlike to that which Masters of Arts and Doctors receive in Universities with this clause Hic ubique terrarum to Teach here and through all the World 2. A speciall Mission either 1. by God alone or 2. or also from the Representative Church 3. A particular Election and Admission whereby the Minister is elected by a Reall particular Church and so admitted therein to exercise his Charge The first of these three is common to the Apostles with all ordinary Ministers The second is universall in the Apostles for Christ sent them to teach all Nations and sitted them with gifts convenient thereunto But it is particular in Particular and Ordinary Ministers for orders sake and that jure divine as many learned and godly Divines hold The third jure divine should be universall in respect of the Apostles for every Particular Church was bound to admit the Apostles in case they would have preached amongst them and if any should have refused them yet in vertue of their generall Vocation and universall Mission from God they had power and Authoritie to Preach among them and in them all But in Particular and Ordinary Ministers it is onely Particular and not Universall for neither doth every Particular Church chuse elect or admit every Ordinary Minister to be its Minister neither is it bound so to do The first of these three is the remote foundation or the remote and principall cause of the Power and Authoritie that a Minister hath to Preach or to rule the Church of God The second and third are the next and immediate foundation or cause thereof or conditio sine qua non viz. The universall Mission and Admission of Ministers is the immediate cause of their universall Power and Authoritie but the particular Mission and Admission is the immediate cause of the Power and Authoritie of Particular Ministers And as we never finde the Philosophers Particularia without their Vniversalia in Particularibus inclusa never a Genus but in some Species nor a Species but in some Individuum by whose Differences their indifferent Nature is limited and determined No more finde we over this vast and generall Vocation in Ordinary Ministers without this Particular Mission of some Representative Church and Admission in and by some Reall and Particular Church or at least it should not be for without this consent Election and Admission a Minister is no more its Minister then a Man is a Womans Husband without her consent Neither can a Man be married to a Woman in generall or to an Individuam vagam but to this or that Particular Woman with whom he contracteth No more can a Preacher be sent to Preach to the Church in generall or to Particular Churches indefinitely viz. Unto quaedam Ecclesia but to this Church distinctly 1. And so I answer that a Particular and Ordinary Minister is differenced from an Universall Minister or an Apostle by the Particularitie of his charge in vertue of his Particular Mission which he hath of God by a Representative Church and of his Particular Election and Admission which depend upon that Particular Reall Church whose Minister he is and not in vertue of his generall Vocation which is common unto both Nam Principium convenientiae non est Principium differentiae That wherein things do agree cannot distinguish or make them differ 2. Every particular or Ordinary Minister may feed teach and rule all the Church but not alwayes Totam militantem Ecclesiam sed non totaliter All particular Churches but not particularly for as we have

in case of Non-satisfaction whereas all punishments should be commensurate unto the severall offences 11. And so ye seem to approve the opinion of the Stoicks who held all sins to be equall since ye inflict the same punishment upon them all 12. Not onely this Discipline cannot easily be put in execution in great Kingdoms as England wherein all the Churches offended cannot so easily meet together but also 13. Because the person offended after he hath represented his grievances unto one Church and that Church having received satisfaction it may go to another and that Church likewise having received satisfaction it may go to another and so continually in infinitum to the Worlds end evermore taking those Churches for the Partie that judge it which is most absurde and foolish 14. What if the Partie offended be poor and have not the means to post up and down from Neighbour-Church to Neighbour-Church to pray them to make the offending Church to give an account of her Judgement muchlesse to attend upon their uncertain conveniencie Here will be found true Pauper ubique jacet whereas in Presbyteriall Government the Partie offended may easily be redressed and get satisfaction as not having need so to post up and down to be at so great charges or to attend their conveniencie for by a simple Appeal he may binde the Church offending to appear at the day appointed 15. What if there should fall out an hundred such Offences in a small time Must so many Churches evermore gather together for every one of them apart 16. What if Churches be poor and cannot be at so great expence Then in that case it should seem there is no order to meet with Offences And as for those precepts 1 Cor. 10. and 1 Tim. 5. The first of them is not a Rule of Government or ruling of the Church but a generall command common to all Christians whereby the Apostle forewarnes the Corinthians in things indifferent not to give any occasion of Offence unto the Church of God or to any other but therein to comply with all men as he doeth himself From whence ye cannot draw a Rule or Law of ruling the Church or how the Church should take order with such Offenders so that it sheweth indeed every mans dutie towards the Church in things indifferent but not the Churches dutie towards every one of them in judging or ruling Ye might as well have proved it from this Principle Fly from all evil or from that We must love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves neither see I any greater connexion that it hath with the one then with the other And truely I cannot sufficiently admire how out of that Principle Give no offence ne to any man ye can inferre this conclusion Ergo a Church offended may make a Church offending to give an account of her judgement before all the world and in case of impenitency pronounce a Sentence of withdrawing and renouncing all Christian Communion with her and further to declare it to all other Churches No more can it be inferred of the other viz. Be not partakers in other mens sins for the Apostle there giveth rules about the Vocation of Ministers forbiddeth Timothy to receive any man rashly into the Ministery least in so doing he be the cause of an unlawfull Vocation because saith he vers 24. their sin and incapacity will soon appear to all men But how is it possible out of this to spin out the former Couclusion § 18. Pag. 17 ye prove your former Conclusion thus 1. For that ye saw no further authority in Scripture in proceedings purcly Ecclesiasticall of one or many sister Churches towards another whole Church or Churches offending 2. Because no other Authority can rationally be put in execution without the Magistrates power Answ 1. Ye saw no more in Scripture yea but saw ye your own Conclusion in Scripture 2. Truely we see no Word of God for it and if we take it not upon your word we shall never take it 3. If ye see no Scripture for it yet others may see 4. Ye may if ye will see it in the ordinary Practice of the Church of the Jews in the old Testament which is not abrogated in the New since it is not Ceremoniall but grounded in the Law of Nature Ye may see it in the History of the New Testament in the judgement given out at the Synod of Hierusalem concerning the businesse of Antiochia which I hope ye shall see cleerly demonstrated to you by a better hand before it be long 6. It may be proved by the Law of Nature which is a praecognitum to Scripture and supposed by Scripture for Grace is not destructory of Nature but a Superstructory above Nature So that when Scripture containeth nothing contradictory to the Dictats of Nature we are bound to believe them unlesse we will misbelieve God who is no lesse the Author of Nature and of the Dictats thereof then of Grace 2. Because no other Authority can rationally be put in execution without the Civill Magistrates power Answ 1. Our Brethren here as every where else stand very stiffly to Negations They never prove any positive Doctrine and it is known in the Schools how easie a thing it is to deny all things and to prove nothing If they had that to prove wherein they agree with us I suppose they should have more to do then we to prove that wherein they disagree from us But to take away all mistakes and captious Evasions we suppose that our Churches arrogate to themselves no Imperiall or Magisteriall but onely a Ministeriall Power or Authority 2. That it is meerly Spirituall consisting 1. in the Creation Suspension and Deposition of Church-Officers 2. in determining matters of Doctrine 3. in making of Ecclesiasticall Laws concerning things indifferent 4. in Ecclesiasticall Censures as in Suspension Excommunication c. They prove That no more can rationally be put in execution viz. then to call an offending Church to an account and in case of her impenitency to declare it to all other Churches Answ We deny the Assumption They prove it for that Christ gave no power to Churches to excommunicate their neighbour Churches Answ 1. This is again another mistake in our Brethren for they suppose that we excommunicate whole Churches which we never do 2. Neither believe I that they can bring us any examples of it The reason why we do not so is Because whole Churches ordinarily amongst us contemn not the superiour Ecclesiasticall Power viz. of Synods being bound by their Oath and Covenant to observe and maintain the Order of the Church 3. And therefore we have no Ecclesiasticall Laws concerning such cases for Lex est ordinatio rationis and Laws are not made of things that never fall out or of things that fall out extraordinarily but of things that are ordinary 4 Much lesse think I that ever any such case did fall out in any one of the Reformed Churches Item it is