Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A25697
|
An Apology for the English Presbyterians with a defence of the heads of agreement assented to by the united ministers in the year 91.
|
|
1699
(1699)
|
Wing A3548; ESTC R17890
|
29,933
|
88
|
fourth Reason for it is this If the contrary Opinion should be admitted we cannot say they see what may be the Consequences thereof with respect to those Difficult Controversies with the Papists about the Perpetual Succession of the Churches some Years before Luther about their Separation from Rome about the first Gathering and Constituting Reformed Churches and calling of Ministers before with at and since the Reformation §. 20 The Strength of what they offer on this Occasion lieth here namely in case Visible Saints combin'd for Communion in the Ordinances of the Gospel have Power by Virtue of Jesus Christ's Institution to call and choose their own Officers The first Reformers in combining thus and choosing their own Officers acted in pursuance of the Authority given 'em by Jesus Christ and are Justified But had they not such a Power their Case is not easily defended These Great Divines therefore in Answer to the second Enquiry affirm That a Church Essential has a Power belonging unto it to call a Pastor So that these Learned Men have urged Arguments sufficient to justifie what the Vnited Brethren have done in defining a Church Essential and in shewing how it becomes an Integral Organical Political Body And what they have urged from the Consideration of the Fatal Consequences of the contrary Doctrine with respect to the First Reformation hath enough in it to satisfie any considering Mind about the Reasons that have Influenced the Vnited Brethren to fix their Foot on this Principle about a Particular Church Essential in the framing the Heads of their Agreement Once more §. 21 As the Vnited Brethren have Asserted Particular Churches to be Congregational so it 's evident they have confined the Power of their Officers to their own Churches For in the Section of Communion with other Churches Art 2. it is agreed That none of our Particular Churches shall be Subordinate to one another each being endow'd with Equality of Power from Jesus Christ and that none of the said Particular Churches their Officer or Officers shall Exercise any Power or have any Superiority over any other Church or their Officers So clear it is that this Article by denying unto one Officer singly and to many Officers collectively any sort of Power or Superiority over one another doth lay an impregnable Bar against the setting up of Classical Provincial or National Assemblies invested with a Power to govern Congregational Churches For it must be acknowledged that in forming the late Heads of Agreement special care was taken to convince them of the Church of England that there was no place for us to make the least Incroachments on the Established National Church Form That the Mounds and Barriers we raised to keep all within the Confines of the Tolleration granted us were such that no sincere Approver of the Vnion can have any Hand in erecting any thing like a National Church Form and therefore can never be for Classical Provincial or National Assemblies of Ministers Their going about any such thing is a breaking down the strongest Mounds a violating the most Solemn Engagements and a tearing up the very Foundation on which the late Union was built which can never be answered to our Countrey Brethren nor to their own Consciences much less unto a Holy and Jealous God For §. 22 By the Heads of Agreement as all that Church Power we claim is confined to Particular Congregational Churches and a Superiority of Power denied to any one Officer or Officers of Churches so Particular Churches were no further concern'd to give any account of their own Actings beside what the Civil Magistrate requires but what on some special Occasions might be needful in a Brotherly way to Neighbour Congregations when desired and 't was for the removal of Scandals or the rectifying Mistakes But for stated Classical Provincial or Natural Assembles and the coming under the Obligation of making a Diligent Observation and a Faithful Report of the State of their Congregations unto any of those larger Assemblies there is not one Word in our Agreement Nor can any of our Number consent that our Ministers should take upon 'em the Office of stated Inquisitors or Informers For as such an Imploy is as likely to Ruine as it is to serve its chiefest Contrivers so it 's Vnworthy of Men in so Holy a Function and contrary to that Work Christ Jesus has called his Ministers unto which lying in strenuous Endeavours to further the Salvation of them committed to their care cannot be faithfully performed but by keeping within the Pale of their Single Congregations And seeing this is what is granted to us by the Toleration to which we have hitherto confined our selves we declare it to be our Firm Resolution always to do so being as much Dissatisfied with that Church-Form which endangers the Established Church as any in that Church can be For §. 23 That very Form of Church Government which alone can give just Ground of Suspicion is as Destructive of those Churches we believe to be of Divine Institution as it can be of the Established Church Form The Jure Divino Classical Government that Rivals it with the Episcopal doth as really destroy Congregational Churches by making them but Parts of a Proper Church as it would subvert the Diocesan were it set up amongst us Yea if we more closely look into this Matter we shall find the Classical Government more Hurtful to our Church way than it can be to theirs seeing it allows of Diocesan under the Name of Classical and strikes only at their Rulers and not at their Church-state whilst it Vn-churches all our Congregations and Divests the Officers of that Power which we think Christ has given them and are therefore more Formidable unto and Dreaded by us than by the Church it self which Consideration will we hope satisfie our Superiours and every thoughtful Person of the Church That they are in no Danger from us §. 24 That they destroy our Church way is farther evident in that they bring every Paroch and Congregation under the Government of their Classical and other Larger Assemblies by the Obligation of a Divine Law and that they may to their own greater Satisfaction prove thus much they make the Catholick Church Visible to be one Govern'd Society or Body Politick which must necessarily be under a Governed Head either of One single Person or of many Collectively whereby they run so far as to destroy not only Congregational Churches but to subvert that very Principle upon which the Reformation was begun in this Land and do lay a Foundation for that Papal Anti-christian Power which in its Exercise hath shed the Blood of Thousands who are now under the Altar crying How long Holy and True dost thou not Avenge c. and against which we have by the Oath of Supremacy Sworn So that tho' we agree with our Classical Brethren of Scotland in affirming Bishops and Presbyters to be of the same Order which only is against the Divine not
the Souls of the Congregation of which he is a Pastor That those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater Power and Authority than this especially they that make claim Jure Divino of Power or Jurisdiction to meddle with other Churches than that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be Members do USURP UPON THE SUREMACY OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE § 24 25 27. And a little before § 12. We hold that the King has Power to Remove out of the Churches all Scandalous Schismatical and Heretical Teachers And § 14. That the King only hath Power within his Dominions to Convene Synods or General Assemblies of Ministers §. 9 Soon after this Protestation a Christian and Modest Offer of a most Indifferent Conference or Disputation about the Main and Principal Controversies betwixt the Prelates and the late Silenced Ministers in England was made in which viz. P. 2 3. the Nonconforming Ministers undertook to prove That there is no true Visible Church of Christ but a Particular Ordinary Congregation only that every true Visible Church of Christ or Ordinary Assembly of the Faithful hath by Christ's Ordinance Power in it self immediately under Christ to Elect and Ordain Deprive and Depose their Ministers and to Execute all other Ecclesiastical Censures That the Pastor of a Particular Congregation is the Highest Ordinary Ecclesiastical Officer in any true Constituted Visible Church of Christ That the Civil Magistrates ought to be the Overseers of Provinces and Dioceses and of THE SEVERAL CHURCHES THEREIN And it is their Office and Duty injoyned them by God to take Knowledge to Punish and Redress all Misgoverning or ill Treating of any Church or Church-Officer §. 10 What is here affirm'd by these Deprived Ministers is so full not only against the Diocesan but Classical way that it may tempt some to take it for Granted That whilst I profess to set down the Principles of the English Presbyterians I am only describing the Brownists in which they will perhaps be confirm'd when they consider that in this same Offer it 's asserted That the Pastor alone ought not to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over his Church but others ought to be joyned to him by the Assignment of the same Church NEITHER OUGHT HE AND THEY TO PERFORM ANY Main and Material Ecclesiastical Act WITHOUT THE FREE CONSENT OF THE CONGREGATION However it 's very manifest that these Nonconformists were far from closing with Brownism as appears from what they Answer to the 11th Opposition in which 't is demanded Why do they not wholly with the Brownists separate and get them to Amsterdam to their Holy Brethren there Where they Protest that they are Persuaded that many of the Conforming Ministers are true Ministers of Jesus Christ indowed with Gifts from Heaven for that Holy Function And that the Holy Churches which they teach are true Churches which was sufficient to clear them from the Reproaches of being Brownists §. 11 And as they so freely express their own true Sense in these Matters so it is with an Assurance that none of the Conformable Clergy were so much against the above-mentioned Assertions which they undertook to maintain but would rather Close with them than Expose themselves to the Lash of such Penalties as the Deprived Ministers lay under Their Words are Pag. 16 17. The former Propositions are such that there will not be found as we are verily perswaded in our Consciences any one Conformable Minister except he be a Masked Papist that will Refuse to subscribe to ANY ONE OF THEM if so be it would please the King and State by Law to Urge them thereunto under such Penalties as the Ministers are urged to subscribe unto the Articles devised by the Prelates Yea we are out of all doubt that the Prelates themselves if the case stood but upon the saving of their Temporalities which else they should lose would with HEART and HAND subscribe to ANY ONE of the aforesaid Propositions Besides §. 12 These English Presbyterians were so fully convinced of the Truth of the aforesaid Propositions which they offered to defend that they were perswaded they were such that if the Ministers should not constantly hold and maintain the same against all Men they cannot see how possibly by the Rules of Divinity the SEPARATION of our Churches from the Church of Rome and from the Pope the Supream Head thereof can be Justified p. 11. But §. 13 As this offer for a Conference was made in the Year 1606 so 't was followed Anno 1609 with a Petition of the Deprived Ministers in which they declare themselves 〈◊〉 As we hold That your Majesty within your Dominions have Power to call Synods and to Dissolve them so we hold likewise that RULING Synods and UNITED Presbyteries exercising Government and Imposing Laws and Decrees upon several Churches and the Pastors of them are not only Humane Institutions but in regard of the said Government and Authority of Imposing Laws altogether UNLAWFUL and USURPING upon the SUPREMACY of the Civil MAGISTRATE We acknowledge as hath been above remembred no other Power and Authority for the OVERSEEING RULING and Censuring of Particular Churches how many soever in number in the Case of their Misgovernment than that which is Originally Invested in your Royal Person and from it derived to such of your Laity as you shall Judge Worthy to be Deputed to the Execution of the same under you so as the Favour humbly sollicited by us is That whereas our Lord Jesus hath given to each PARTICULAR CHURCH or ORDINARY CONGREGATION this Right and Priviledge viz. To Elect Ordain and Deprive her own Ministers and to Exercise all other Parts of Lawful Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under him So far the Petitioning Ministers P. 13 14. who in P. 18. say That in this Church speaking of a Particular Church and the Officers thereof which is confined within the Bounds of a Parish one is a Pastor another a Teacher others Elders and others Deacons §. 14 These Quotations out of the old English Presbyterians do sufficiently evince that they held that properly speaking there was no other Visible Church but what was Congregational that the Power of their Officers is not to be stretched beyond the Bounds of a single Congregation that what Power is needful besides this for Reforming Particular Churches is Invested in the Civil Magistrate to whom it doth also belong to Convene Synods c. And it must be also Remark'd §. 15 That in these Instances the English Presbyterian and the Congregationalist are most entirely Agreed as appears not only from what is in the Preface to the Savoy Confession where it 's Declared by them in these Words As for our selves we are able to trace the Footsteps of an Independent Congregational way in the Antientest Customs of the Churches as also in the WRITINGS of our soundest Protestant Divines and that which we are much satisfied in a full Concurrence throughout in all the Substantial Parts of Church-Government with our Reverend