Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	emperor_n	pope_n	2,950	5	6.8842	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81829	The povver of the Christian magistrate in sacred things Delivered in some positions, sent to a friend, upon which, a returne of his opinion was desired. With some considerations, upon the answer; and a digression concerning allegiance, and submission to the supreame magistrate. By Lewis du Moulin, History-reader of the University of Oxford.	Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing D2551; Thomason E1366_4; ESTC R209267	40,736	161

persons are subject to the Soveraigne Magistrate in whose hands God hath put the Sword and that he hath power over the lives and goods of the Pastours of the Church and may iustly punish them when they are perturbators of the publick peace and become obnoxious by their wicked lives that the duty of the Magistrate is to restrain them if they behave themselves tyrannically in the use of the Keyes and break the peace of the State Consideration THis alone is sufficient to evince that in a Christian Common-wealth there can be but one Soveraigne power over all persons causes and actions for it is absurd to conceive that the Supream Magistrate hath power over the person of the Minister and not over the actions and causes for which he may and must be punished by the said Magistrate and 't is no lesse absurd to conceive that the Magistrate may justly put to death a Minister or punish him with banishment yet may not have the power to degrade him it being a rule in philosophy that if the whole be in the power much more a part of the whole and if the same Supream Magistrate may justly degrade him who doubts but he may as justly challenge to himself the right of choosing him else which is all one as if he had chosen the Pastour himself he may put by not onely the said Pastour but so many one after another as are substituted by the power they call Ecclesiasticall till the Pastor chosen be according to his owne mind Letter ANd because it might fall out that in Nationall and Provincial Synods the overseers of Churches should transgresse the limits of their calling and meddle with civill affaires in which the Civill Magistrate is interessed it stands with reason that these Synods be not convened without the will and consent of the Soveraign the ancient Emperours have yet done more then that for in the universall Councils they have been present as Constantine in the Council of Nicaea and Marcian at the opening of the Chalcedoine Council or in their stead they have sent Earls Patrices or Consuls as we may see in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedoine and the II. Councill of Nicaea in the said Acts we see that the said Patrices and Earles abated the insolency of some Bishops and commanded them absolutely The title given them by the Councill was Gloriosissimi Iudices Consideration THis likewise proveth the necessity of one Soveraigne power over all persons meetings causes and actions Synods being assemblies of wise and learned Councellours to advise the Supream power in matters of Doctrine and Discipline as the Supream Magistrates power is to call them so to determine the members that are called to it as Marsilius Patavinus saith Generale concilium convocare personas ad hoc idoneas determinare pertinet ad Legislatoris authoritatem part 2. cap. 20. and not onely so he only doth preside and reserveth himself the facultie of approving disproving examining and rejecting what he thinks fit even after the Synod is broken up and their conclusions and Canons are ratified by him as the Ecclesiasti-Historie tells us Letter AS for decisions of points touching Doctrine of faith although the Emperours never iudged of these matters yet did they maintain their authority giving Judges to whom they commanded to decide the differences as Constantine did when the Donatists came to complain to him for he gave them some Bishops for Judges to whose Judgement they not yielding he called a Councill to pronounce a definitive sentence but these Judges which the Emperour gave to decide matter of Doctrine were alwayes Bishops and Ecclesiasticall persons by that means the Emperonr kept his authority over Bishops Consideration OBserve that not the Churches nor the Synods but the Emperour nameth the Judges The difference was betwixt the Donatists and other Bishops of Africa the Donatists with a great deale of submission besought the Emperor to give them Judges out of France The Emperour gave them 3 French and with them Miltiades Bishop of Rome 'T is here further to be observed that as the Letter saith the Donatists did not condescend to the determinations of the 4 Judges which is not to be understood as if they rejected the sentence of the Judges or of the Emperor as issued from incompetent Judges or appealed to a Synod for quite contrary they appealed to the Emperour who indeed thereupon called another Synod to compose the controversie which was about Caecilianus accused by the Donatists of many crimes and to have been unduly elected from that Synod in which they were condemned they appealed againe to the Emperor who for the second time called another Councill at Arles of which the Donatists not being satisfied that Caecilianus should be confirmed in his Sea of Carthage appealed the third time from the Councill to the Emperour who condemned the Donatists and banished them Neither were the Donatists ignorant that the decision of the Emperour should be the ultimate definitive judgment And the very Bishops did use to give account of what passed in Synods Thus Constantine called the Bishops convened at Tyr to him to give an account of what passed in the Assembly Among the Councils of France we read that the heads of the debates in Synods were referred ad sacratissimum judicium that is the counsell of the King or rather the King himselfe and that in the year 813. the addresses to Charles the Great doe refer the determinations of the Councell to be examined amended and confirmed by him and that by his wisedome he would vouchsafe to supply what had beene wanting on their part Letter IF the Soveraigne Counsill be minded to reserve to himself the decision of points of Doctrine and of all Ecclesiasticall affaires it were in that case needfull that the Councill should be composed partly of Pastors and Doctors and Ecclesiasticall persons skilled in these matters as it was practised in the Palatinate afore the late troubles which is confirmed by the example alledged by the Author of the Articles We find saith he that in the Common-wealth of the Jewes in one onely Synedrium all causes were decided and all kinds of persons might be convented In this Synedrium the Nasi was President who usually was the High Priest and most in it were Priests or Levites The same thing was practised in England before these late alterations there being a Soveraign Counsell called the High Commission in which the Arch-bishop was President to whom were joyned in Commission as Assessors some Counsellors at Law of the Country Consideration 'T Is sufficiently granted that though it be admitted that Ecclesiasticall and Civill causes are belonging to two distinct Jurisdictions yet they may confluere in unum and be made of two one under one single Soveraign Power That the Powers were not divided in the Common-wealth of the Jewes it may be easily gathered by the Story of the Jewes from Moses to the Captivity Moses himselfe was a Soveraigne Judge in all causes

which of them the Temple and Priesthood did belong Letter GRegory of Tours who wrote about the yeare of our Lord 585. the historie of France in the 18 chap. of the 5 book speaks thus to the King Chilperick If any of us O King go besides the path of righteousnesse thou mayest redresse him but if thou dost transgresse who shall be able to correct thee we speak to thee and thou hearest us but if thou wilt not who shall have the power to condemne thee but he that is Iustice it selfe At that time the Bishop of Rouen named Praetextat was in great reputation yet was this Bishop being accused to have adhered to Meroue who rebelled against Chilperick clapt into prison by the Kings command and sore beaten and banished to Garnsey Consideration ALL this is sufficient to prove that the Soveraigne power of the State hath alwayes challenged power over Ecclesiasticall persons by that which follows it will be as clear that they challenge likewise the cognizance and ordering of Ecclesiasticall causes and actions Letter THE Greek Emperours have called all the oeconomick Councells not expecting the consent of the Bishop of Rome and often against his consent as the first Councell of Constantinople and of Chalcedone Yea in matters of Religion and Ecclesiasticall policy one cannot deny but that the Soveraign power of the State hath made orders David made twenty foure ranks of Priests Salomon had the chief oversight of the building of the Temple and bringing in all the vessels We see in the Code of Iustinian great number of Lawes concerning not only the policy of the Church but also the purity of the doctrine as be the titles de summa Trinitate fide Catholica de Episcopis Clericis ne sanctum Baptisma iteretur By which Lawes it appeareth that the Emperours had power to punish the Bishops namely by the 123 Authentick chap. 1. the Emperour speaketh thus Si quis autem extra memoratam observationem Episcopus ordinetur jubemus hunc Episcopatu depelli Yea he there addeth pecuniary Fines Consideration AS by these Lawes in the code of Justinian it appeareth that the Emperours had power to punish the Bishops as the Letter saith so doe they much more clearely assert the right and power which the Supreame Magistrate hath not only over all causes they call Ecclesiasticall but to make Lawes and Constitutions of the same nature as the causes be Letter A Great part of the Capitularies of Charles the great and of Lewis le Debonnaire are Laws Ecclesiasticall like those we read in the Councels of those dayes The Councell of Meyns held in the yeare 813. begins thus Carolo Augusto verae religionis Rectori Defensori Sanctae Ecclesiae And the second Councell of Meyns speaks thus to Lewis le Debonnaire at the opening of it Domino Serenissimo Christianissimo Regi Ludovico verae religionis strenuissimo Rectori Defensori Sanctae Ecclesiae I doubt not but these Emperours made those Lawes by the counsell of the Bishops and Prelats within their Dominions But they were willing to have them currant under the name of their Imperiall Lawes and the stamp of their Authority for the Soveraign Magistrate is the servant of God appointed by God to see the Law of God observed amongst men and the pure worship of his name set up Consideration THe Soveraigne Power is constituted by God to the end that men might live godly justly soberly and peaceably A Heathen could say that in a Common-wealth the first care must be Religion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist And there is good reason that the Soveraign Magistrate should seeke after that which he is in the first place to ask for which is the Kingdome of Heaven being the basis of humane society so saith Cicero Religio est humanae societatis fundamentum But that the duty of the Supream Power is equally to order the religion and the civill government St. Austin doth plainely set it downe in the third Book against Cresconius Grammaticus In hoc Reges sicut eis divinitus praecipitur Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt si in regno suo bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae ad divinam religionem In that Kings as they are injoyned by God doe serve God as they are Kings if within their Kingdom they command good things and forbid evill things not onely in things belonging to humane society but also to divine religion Letter ANd I doe not believe that in England there is any Minister of the Word of God found who doth not acknowledge a subjection to the Sovereign Magistrate but is rather exceeding joyfull that the holy Ordinances are setled by publick authority and therefore there is no feare that any of them should goe about to perswade that there must be an Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth differing from the civill and one Common-wealth within another 'T is all the fault we finde with the Pope and his Clergy that they have made Imperium in Imperio and that the Clergy by his Lawes cannot be convented before the Royall Judges for they have Courts of Judicature and Prisons severed from the civill they have their appeales to the Roman Court and are freed from taxes and impositions Consideration THat power which the Ministers doe challenge in censuring and punishing of offenders suspending from the communion or excommunicating as inherent and intrinsecall to the Ministers of the word and not being a branch depending of the jurisdiction of the Soveraign Christian Magistrate that power I say thus challenged is as much as to constitute one Common-wealth within another Letter FOr I doe not thinke that Bishops or Ministers ought to render themselves Judges in any cause civill or capitall to punish the offenders by imprisonment taxes or bodily penalties Jesus Christ never authorized them so to doe for he would not so much as accept of being an arbiter in sharing of an Inheritance For these reasons I doe not believe that those in whose hands God hath now entrusted the Soveraign Power in England shall have any ground of fearing that the Ministers so long as they discharge their calling making use of that authority that Jesus Christ hath given them have any intention to intrench upon the Power and Authority of the Soveraign Magistrate But because the third Article attributing to the Supream Magistrate a right to order all humane actions tending to the Soveraign end which is the glory of God and the salvation of souls might seem to draw this consequence that the soveraign Magistrate is judg of all actions about Ministry and the Preaching of the Word therefore the article addeth a prudent cautition viz. That we must obey the Soveraign Magistrate so long as his commands are not repugnant to Gods commands for if he should command the abjuring of the Christian Religion or bowing before an Idol or should introduce another propitiatory sacrifice for sinnes

Pastors or society of Christians get an increase of power of Jurisdiction and Legslation if they be a Law unto themselves and practise the duties of piety and exhort one another so to do Plinius the younger in the 97 Epistle to Trajan and the tenth book where he speaks of Christians saith that one of their crimes was that they joyned themselves in a covenant to live unblameably not to steal not to commit fornication not to defraud his neighbour and the like I believe that none will from that practise of the Christians argue that they took upon them more power for so doing then they durst under a Christian Magistrate except he were of the mind of some of late in Authority in England who disliked and endeavoured to suppresse all godly private meetings under pretence of Factions Sure if I mistake it not it will be found that the Pastors power of the Keyes had no life to compell the disobedient to Gods ordinances till they received it from the Soveraigne Magistrate when he gave his name to Christ who both more honoured and exalted Gods ordinances raising them from the dust and added weight to the heavenly messages by the mouth of the Ministers by being a terrour to the evil and punishing the ungodly To the power of persuasion and declaration he addeth that of coaction in which the Pastors have nothing to do The Bishop saith Saint Paul must not be a striker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon Chrysostome saith well If a man is drawn from the faith the Priest must undertake with patience to exhort him for he cannot redresse him by force onely he must strive to perswade him to bring him to the right Faith Pastors saith the same Father are appointed to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to rule or command with authority Letter HEre I dare say that the Reformers of the Doctrine of the Pope have not retained the Keys that were under Popery In reforming the Doctrine they have also reformed the abuses cleaving to the Keyes which are abominable for in the Romish Church they extend the power of the Keyes so farre as pardoning sinnes in a judiciall way saying to the sinner I absolve thee from thy sinnes The Priest renders himself Judge in a cause wherein God is the party offended By vertue of these Keyes the Pope drawes souls out of Purgatory he looseth those he never bound and which are none of his flock he doth loose under earth because Jesus Christ hath said what ever you shall bind on earth he doth loose and dispence with oaths and vows and freeth Subjects from the obedience due to their Soveraigne Prince he separates marriages exempting also children from the obedience they owe to their Father and Mother These holy men of God who have reformed the Doctrine have left off those Keyes and kept those which Jesus Christ hath given to his Disciples and their successors I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven it was also impossible to reform the Doctrine without reforming the Keyes since those Keyes are a part of the Doctrine they have retained to themselves the power to bind and loose which Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples Math. 16. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth c which power goeth no further then Ecclesiasticall censures as the Lord Jesus Christ teacheth in the same place giving to understand that by this binding the rebellious sinner is put among the Publicanes and sinners who were excluded from the Communion of the Church Thus we must understand the power of remitting or reteining sinnes given by Jesus Christ to his Disciples The faithfull Pastors do remit sinnes when they release men of Ecclesiacall penalties and receive to the Communion of the Church the repenting sinner who was excluded Consideration THe Reformers have done as Richard the third in usurping a power which yet he exercised with moderation and making of good Lawes so did Augustus Caesar and some more Thus the Reformers have reteyned the Keyes to which they had no more right then the Pastors of the Romish Church but have taken away those adjuncts of abuses and abominations adhering to the power of the Keyes In that sence as Richard the third may be said to have usurped the Crowne as well as he who to usurpation hath added a tyrannicall Government and making of wicked and unjust Lawes so may it be said that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have reteined the power of the Keyes the Article thus speaking having no further meaning then to say that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have still challenged to themselves an Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction not belonging to the Civil Magistrate even as the Pastours of the Romish Church have donc though not the same for qualifications As for the meaning of the words dic Ecclesiae tell it unto the Church it cannot have much strength what ever interpretation one may give to the words whether by the word Church we understand a Synagogue or judicatory as was that of the Iewes amongst which there was no difference between Church and State or Common-wealth or a society of faithfull men and though by the Church Pastours should be understood I do not see here any Iudiciall sentence binding him that trespasseth against his neighbour but still he may if he will hearken without fear of any coercive power seated in the Ministers and the words Let him be to thee a heathen or a publican have no further meaning then have him for such a one in thy thoughts and estimation a Publicans office was lawfull neither yet could he be excluded from the communion nor from the congregation the very heathen not being excluded from the latter for how else could they have been converted Letter THE Reformers then in reforming the abuses in the Doctrine and Keyes have retained the Keyes and power to bind and unbind committed to them by Jesus Christ The Author of the Articles acknowledgeth that the Pastors of the Church have well done to retain that power under the heathen Emperors that is almost for the space of 350 yeares from Christ to Constantine the first Christian Emperour since which Emperour the said Author thinks that the Bishops and Pastors were to part with that Power and that the Soveraigne Power of the Keyes did no longer belong to them but that they were to desert it in obedience to God which yet they have not done for all the ancient Councels although convened by the will of the Emperours are full of penitentiall canons prescribing the forme time and degrees for publique pennances in the execution of which canons the consent of the Emperours nor of their Lieutenants was never expected Consideration WE have seen before that the power of the Ministers is neither increased nor diminished whether the Magistrate be Orthodox or no and that the power of the keyes given them by God hath more lively actings under the Orthodox Magistrate To that part of the Letter which saith that in