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
6 - Of power ecclesiastical
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
The former rules may easily be applied to a particular church, for it's a spiritual commonwealth, and must as such, have governors, and them invested with a supreme power, yet such and of the same nature as the church is: that is, spiritual and ecclesiastical. This power, as all other in civil states, is derivative from Heaven, and of a very narrow scantling. And, that I may be more perspicuous and direct the reader by some line or thread of method, I will say something of the power: […] as it is spiritual; […] as supreme; [and] as divisible into several branches.
In the first place it's spiritual, and that in many respects, as the authors of Jus divinum regiminis ecclesiastici have sufficiently demonstrated. For the person's rule, actions and end are to be considered, not under a civil, but a spiritual notion. As styled by divines, and that according to the spirit's language, and the phrase of Holy Writ, to be potestas clavium. And the acts thereof are opening, shutting; or which are the same, binding, loosing. These are metaphorical terms, taken out of the Old into the New Testament. For our Saviour did love to use the spirit's words. The first and chief place where we read these words in a political sense with reference to government, is that of the evangelical prophet. ‘And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open’ (Isa. 22.22).
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- Information
- Lawson: Politica sacra et civilis , pp. 76 - 85Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993