Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	power_n	spiritual_a	6,456	5	6.8547	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29544	Balm from Gilead, or, The differences about the indulgence stated and impleaded in a sober and serious letter to ministers and Christians in Scotland / by an healing hand.	Bairdy, John.	1681 (1681)	Wing B475; ESTC R22267	103,282	194

do they innovate or renounce their Commission from the Lord by receiving the Magistrates superadded mission or command and legal warrant nor do they therefore cease to be Christs Ministers or Ambassadors in his name or become Council-Curates as some opprobriously and injuriously alledg because the King by his Council adds his civil Sanction to the Authority they have of Christ Who can say their Levites were Jehoshaphats Curates and not the Lords Ministers for undergoing the like appointment of his power Does the Magistrates supervenient Authority diminish or enervate the antecedent intrinsick power and spiritual authority of their office or alter its nature Is Christs Commission to his Ambassadors and the Magistrates adding his Civil Warrant kissing and serving the Son of God therein as Psal 2.11 12. destructive and subversive and not rather corroborative one of another and may sweetly conspire together as being though Diversa yet not Adversa and contrary one to another Subordinata subservientia non pugnant Add to all this that several of your General Assemblies the supreme Court of Christ in your Church when they were as oft they were Indicted and Convocate by the Kings Authority and upon his Command and Proclamation did sit were they pray you therefore but Erastian Courts and Synagogues deriving all their Authority from the King and acting in his Name like other Civil Judicatories of the Kingdom i. e. the Session or Parliament were they in this case not at all Christs Court nor acting in his name as his Ambassadors and not the Kings was this in them a renouncing of Christs Headship and an acknowledging of another Lord and Master and a taking of Commission from the Civil Magistrate c. We hope none will be so absurd as to affirm it or to think that the Magistrates Auxiliary deed and their making use of it was derogatory either to Christs Kingly Office or to the Assemblies intrinsick power or altered their nature from being purely spiritual Courts of Christ Even so what more does the Prince his permitting or appointing actual Ministers to exercise their Office here or there in this broken state of the Church constitute them his Curates or Delegates or state them guilty of Homologating an Erastian power and establishing a spiritual supremacy in the Magistrate or infer them to be such as may not say to people Over you hath the Holy Ghost made us overseers but the King Certainly if the superaddition of the Magistrates Authority do not innovate nor prejudice the Assemblies Authority in the exercise of Government neither doth it the Ministers in the Exercise of their Function The Magistrate herein but serves the Lord and his Christ and his Spouse the Church and her Ministry but acts not as in Christs stead as her Head and Lord. Q. The Magistrate his interposing his Authority in this case what place holds it then say ye Answ It is not constitutive of their Office as was in the case of these Priests whom Jeroboam did make and constitute of the lowest of the people but cumulative to it Accumulando jura juribus in a subservient and extrinsick way and corroborative of its Exercise and determineth them in the exercise thereof as to some circumstances namely the place or places of the Land where they are to exercise their work Now this power aforesaid being not improper to Kings under the Old Testament why may they not under the New put forth the like as your own Divines hold and none but the Papists and Anabaptists deny And if they may in some cases appoint much more permit as your Indulgence is as hereafter shall be made to appear To this Scriptural Doctrine agreeth 1 That general Assertion That to the Prince it belongeth as Nurse-father of the Church to take care and do what in him lyes in ways and by means congruous to his capacity and sphere that indigent people be provided with a godly and well-qualified Ministry as learned Mr. Gillespy that noble Antagonist of the Erastian Exorbitancies of the Civil power hath it in his hundred and eleven Propositions Propos 41. And before him famous Mr. Welsh in his Epistle Dedicatory to King James prefixed to his piece against Popery speaking of the forementioned practices of Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat saith to the King Follow these Examples Sir send Pastors through all the borders of your Kingdom to teach your Subjects the Law of the Lord their God c. We hope ye will not think or say that eminent man of God who suffered so much for asserting the Churches rights and withstanding the incroachments of the time doth here teach the King Erastian Principles or practices or Papal and Spiritual Supremacy and yet as much doth he teach as your Indulgence amounts unto in what of it is accepted by the Brethren 2 Ponder how particularly your Church concedeth to the Magistrate a power to put Ministers to particular Charges when the Church is not in her ordinary or well setled case as in the second Book of Discipline Chap. 10. § last they say That Kings and Princes that be godly may by their Authority when the Kirk is corrupted and all things out of order place Ministers and restore the true service of the Lord after the example of some godly Kings of Judah c. So blessed Mr. Welsh in the formentioned Epistle to King James approves of the King his being desirous as he had professed in two Assemblies to plant every Parish within his Kingdom with a Pastor Which expressions of placing and planting used in the foresaid Citations albeit they mean not of Ordaining and making of Ministers constitutively but only a setling of Ministers already Ordained in particular places yet surely they import no less than the word Appoint in the first Indulgence and more than the Grant of the second which only permits Ministers to Preach in such and such vacant Congregations Yea further in the first Book of Discipline pag. 37. it is expresly allowed to the Magistrate in such a case to appoint Ministers to certain Provinces and Charges § If any except here that this power is ascribed only to Godly Magistrates such as Hezekiah c. was To this we say three things 1 Is it not hard to seclude any Prince professing the Gospel and being a member of the Visible Church from the claim at least of Foederal Holiness notwithstanding he have his own personal faults see Job 34.18 2 Ye know it is a Popish principle to say Dominium fundatur in gratia that Soveraignty and power is grounded on Grace and Piety Whence it is when Kings change their Religion and turn Protestant which they call Heresie the Pope declareth them fallen from their Regality exauctorats and deposeth them Your Confession of Faith teacheth otherwise Chap. 23. § 4. That Infidelity or difference of Religion does not make void the Magistrates just and Legal Authority Hence Mr. Calderwood Mr. Rutherford and others of your Writers teach that neither doth Piety add nor Impiety

purpose What is it displeaseth you at your Brethrens deed I. Is it the Name of Indulgence Answ We hope ye will not contend about Names and Words 1 Tim. 6.4 Were not such Litigations a bogling at Shadows and would savour of Levity or Captiousness What is such an Indulgence but a dispensing with the severity of the Law letting them have access to the publick peaceable exercise of their Ministry from which the Law did debar them And may not the Magistrate dispense with his own Law in whole or in part and call this very properly an Indulgence But away with striving about words Call it a Permission Toleration or License or what ye will so ye but agree about the thing II. Does it offend you that the Magistrate intermedleth with Church-affairs Answ We expect also this not to be your scruple judging ye still adhere to the Doctrine of your Church and of all the Reformed expressed in their Confessions of Faith and the Writings of their Worthies against the Papists Anabaptists and Erastians who tho' against Erastians they deny the Magistrate any power in Sacris or formally and intrinsecally Ecclesiastical called in Scripture the Power of the Keys yet against the Papists and Anabaptists they attribute unto him an Imperative Power circa sacra about the matters of God formally civil and only objectively Ecclesiastical and to be put forth modo civili in a civil way and by civil means so that there is nothing so sacred in the visible matters of Religion but it is the object of his care and Procuratorship and his power to be conversant about it in manner competent as Amesius tells Cas consc lib. 5. cap. 25. thes 8. He being custos vindex utriusque tabulae keeper of both Tables of the Law of the first as well as of the second as the fourth Command appointeth whence it is called by some eminent Divines the Magistrates Charter for taking care of Religion which is also confirmed from Deut. 31.9 Deut. 17.18 19. with Josh 1.7 8 9. This power and by virtue of it his just intermedling for the good of Religion is uncontroverted by Orthodox Divines and confirmed by that applauded practice of Artaxerxes Decreeing Ezra 7.23 Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done for the House of the God of Heaven c. Which power if through error or wickedness the Magistrate imploy for the hurt rather than for the good of the Church though that be a fault yet we judg ye will not call it Erastianism or an usurpation of an unlawful power but an abuse or misapplication of a lawful and will count him peccant in the matter not in the Authority or power Now this power of his is extended by Divines to no less if not to more than your Indulgence in so far as it is accepted by the Brethren amounts unto And that conform to the word of God in the commended practices of several Kings mentioned in Scripture who warrantably took upon them by vertue of their calling to do as much and more without the least imputation of invading the Priestly or Spiritual power Aarons Rod and Judahs Scepters remaining still distinct notwithstanding Particularly did not Hezekiah in 2 Chron. 29.3 Open the doors of the house of the Lord which had been shut for a long time as v. 7. and v. 4. it is said He brought in the Priests and Levites And v. 5. he puts them to their work to sanctifie and cleanse the house And v. 21. To offer sacrifices is commanded by him And v. 25. he set or restored to their place the Levites in the house of the Lord with Cymbals c. And v. 30. Commanded them to sing praise c. Now in all these things the Priests and Levites did give obedience not only out of duty to God as obliged to do these things by virtue of their office but also out of respect to the Kings Commandment as ye find v. 15 24. The like is said 2 Chron. 35.2 that Josias set the Priests in their Charges From these Citations Note three things 1 That as it is proper to the Spiritual Officers of the House of God Operari in Sacris or elicitively to act in the exercises of Religion so it is not incompetent to the Civil Ruler to command and put forth his authority about the same imperatively but jure he may yea ex Officio he ought to do so even to put the Church-Officers to their duty and work when need requireth and that not only by removing Restraints and Impediments nor by naked permission only but even by way of Authoritative order and command As there the Prince appointeth and the Priest acteth 2 That this is especially competent yea incumbent to him In statu Ecclesiae Turbato vel corrupto in a perturbed or corrupted state of the Church such as then was and as yours was and is 3 That it is no crime for the Ministers of the Lord to obey the Magistrate in such a case As the Magistrate acteth no Erastianism nor Papal Supremacy in this kind of doing so neither does the Minister homologate or involve himself in any such crime nor is to be loaded with such Imputations in and for going along in his place with such appointments of the Magistrate However Uzziah was faulty in the one sort as 2 Chron. 26.16 18. and Jeroboam in the other sort of solecisms in the exercise of Magistratical power about Religion as 1 King 12.28 29 31 32 33. Uzziah invading the Priests Office like an Erastian indeed and Jeroboam usurping that unlawful Supremacy like Lord and Head of the Church yet good Hezekiah did neither of them Nor does any other Prince who contains himself within his line as Hezekiah did And the Licensing of your Ministers to return to their publick stations is no other as afterward shall be cleared but most like unto Hezekiahs practice in several points above rehearsed And consequently no fault in your Ministers acceptance thereof in so far as it is accepted by them Add to this Jehoshaphats approved practice in 2 Chron. 17.7 where we find he sent the Levites to teach the Lords word in divers places of the land who went accordingly Whence it is evident 1 That it is not repugnant to the Word of God that in some cases specially in a lapsed case of the Church the Magistrate may dispose upon Ministers as to place and parts of a Land where they may exercise their Ministry at least for a time may send them here and there the Churches need calling for it And that this is no proper Ecclesiastical planting or transplanting of Ministers as some invidiously term it but only a Civil Authorization as to exercising their function in such a place for longer or shorter time as need may be 2 It is evident also here that in such a case the Pastors Ministerial Mission or Commission to Teach and Preach is not from the Magistrate but from the Lord nor