Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editor's introduction
- A note on the text
- Bibliographical guide
- Biographical notes
- Principal dates
- Politica Sacra et Civilis
- Epistle to the reader
- Dedicatory poem
- The arguments of the several chapters
- 1 Of government in general, and the original thereof
- 2 Of government in general, and of a community civil
- 3 Of an ecclesiastical community
- 4 Of a commonwealth in general, and power civil
- 5 Of the manner how civil power is acquired
- 6 Of power ecclesiastical
- 7 Of the manner of acquiring ecclesiastical power
- 8 Of the disposition of power civil, and the several forms of government
- 9 Of the disposition of ecclesiastical power: and first, whether it be due unto the bishop of Rome
- 10 Whether the civil state have any good title to the Power of the Keys
- 11 Whether episcopacy be the primary subject of the Power of the Keys
- 12 Whether presbytery or presbyters be the primary subject of the Power of the Keys
- 13 That the government of the church is not purely democratical, but like that of a free state, wherein the power is in the whole, not in any part, which is the author's judgement
- 14 Of the extent of a particular church
- 15 Of subjection in general, and the subjects of a civil state
- 16 Of subjects in an ecclesiastical polity
- Index
- Title in the series
7 - Of the manner of acquiring ecclesiastical power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editor's introduction
- A note on the text
- Bibliographical guide
- Biographical notes
- Principal dates
- Politica Sacra et Civilis
- Epistle to the reader
- Dedicatory poem
- The arguments of the several chapters
- 1 Of government in general, and the original thereof
- 2 Of government in general, and of a community civil
- 3 Of an ecclesiastical community
- 4 Of a commonwealth in general, and power civil
- 5 Of the manner how civil power is acquired
- 6 Of power ecclesiastical
- 7 Of the manner of acquiring ecclesiastical power
- 8 Of the disposition of power civil, and the several forms of government
- 9 Of the disposition of ecclesiastical power: and first, whether it be due unto the bishop of Rome
- 10 Whether the civil state have any good title to the Power of the Keys
- 11 Whether episcopacy be the primary subject of the Power of the Keys
- 12 Whether presbytery or presbyters be the primary subject of the Power of the Keys
- 13 That the government of the church is not purely democratical, but like that of a free state, wherein the power is in the whole, not in any part, which is the author's judgement
- 14 Of the extent of a particular church
- 15 Of subjection in general, and the subjects of a civil state
- 16 Of subjects in an ecclesiastical polity
- Index
- Title in the series
Summary
Having manifested, what ecclesiastical power of discipline is, I must search how it's acquired: for this as well as civil is derivative and that from Heaven, and in a more special manner. It's not natural but acquired. It's also continued by succession, not hereditary but elective; not in a line, as the sacerdotal power confined to the family of Aaron. It's first in God the fountain of all power, and from him derived to Christ as man and administrator general. For so after his resurrection, he said unto his disciples, ‘All power in Heaven and earth is given me.’ Some measure of this he by commission delegate[d] unto the Apostles. Yet that power of theirs as extraordinary, was not successive, or to be derived to those who followed them as ordinary officers of the church: for it expired with them. Yet there was an ordinary power of discipline derived to them, and they never except in ordinary cases, did exercise it but with the church. This, some say was acquired, by those words of Christ to Peter, ‘to thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’, etc. (Matt. 16.19). This power was given to Peter, many of the ancients say, as representing the church; others think it was given him as head of the church; others as representing the Apostles, from whom it was derived to the bishops; or else, as others tell us, to the elders of the church.
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- Information
- Lawson: Politica sacra et civilis , pp. 85 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993