A90276:330
Of schism the true nature of it discovered and considered, with reference to the…Of schisme the true nature of it discovered and considered, with reference to the…
Of schism the true nature of it discovered and considered, with reference to the present differences in religion. / By John Owen D.D.Of schisme the true nature of it discovered and considered, with reference to the present differences in religion. / By John Owen D.D.
Oxford: printed by L.L. for T. Robinson, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The second thing inquired after is,1 what subjection we stood, or were supposed to have stood in, to the Bishops? Our subjection being regulated by their power, the consideration of this, discovers the true state of that.
- 1§. 10.
They had,1 and exercised in this Nation, a twofold Power; and consequently the subjection required of us, was twofold.
- 1§. 11.
1. A power delegated from the supreme Magistrate of the Nation, conferred on them, and invested in them, by the Laws, Customs, and Usages of this Commonwealth, and exercised by them on that account. This not only made them Barons of the Realm, and members of Parliament, and gave them many Dignities and Privileges, but also was the sole fountain, and spring of that Jurisdiction, which they exercised by ways and means, such as themselves will not plead to have been purely Ecclesiastical, and of the Institution of Jesus Christ. In this respect we did not cast off our subjection to them; it being our duty to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man, for the Lords sake. Only when ever they commanded things unlawful in themselves, or unto ⟨p. 228⟩us, we always retreated to the old safe Rule, whether it be meet to obey you or God, judge ye. On this foundation I say, was all the Jurisdiction, which they exercised among, and over the People of this Nation, built. They had not leave to exercise that, which they were invested in, on another account, but received formally their Authority thereby. The tenor whereby their Predecessors held this Power before the Reformation, the change of the tenor by the Laws of this Land, the investiture of the whole original right thereof in another person, then formerly, by the same means, the Legal Concession and Delegation to them made, the enlarging or contracting of their Jurisdiction by the same Laws, the civill process of their Courts in the exercise of their Authority, sufficiently evince from whence they had it. Nor was any thing herein any more of the Institution of Jesus Christ, then the Courts are in Westminster-Hall Sir Edward Cook, who knew the Laws of his Country, and was skilled in them to a miracle, will satisfy any in the rise and tenor of Episcopall Jurisdiction: De Jure Regis Eccles. What there is of Primitive institution, giving colour and occasion to this kind of Jurisdiction, and the exercise of it, shall farther