Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	church_n	elder_n	5,779	5	10.2377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44410	A discourse concerning Lent in two parts : the first an historical account of its observation, the second an essay concern[ing] its original : this subdivided into two repartitions whereof the first is preparatory and shews that most of our Christian ordinances are deriv'd from the Jews, and the second conjectures that Lent is of the same original.	Hooper, George, 1640-1727.	1695 (1695)	Wing H2700; ESTC R29439	185,165	511

People and as they had Moses for their Leader and Law-giver under God their King and also Chief Priest for he consecrated Aaron and his Sons so are we a Society or Body united in One Head our Lord Jesus who under the Father is our King and High Priest And accordingly we succeed to the Stile and Title of the Children of Israel (a) Exod. 19.5 6. Deut. 7.6 and their Dignity and Privileges are devolved upon us For so are we become a peculiar People which Christ has purified to himself (b) Tit. 2.14 We are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father (c) Rev. 1.6 We are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation (d) 1 Pet. 2.9 § II. THIS his People Our Prince and High-Priest himself still Governs but by such subordinate Officers below as are denominated from the Jews and also with the same Discipline as far as was consistent with his Empire which was to be neither Local nor Temporal not dependent upon any one place nor regarding Worldly Interests The Officers of the Christian Church mentioned in the Scripture are Apostles Bishops Elders and Deacons and what signification such Titles did bear in the Church of Israel we are now to see Only I am to premise That as we shall find all those Titles in several significations so we are to observe the same of the Words Church and Synagogus to whom those Titles belong For each of these as is well known signifies either the People united under the same Covenant a Society or a Local Assembly of those of that Society or the Place where they are to Assemble The highest Office of the New Testament is that of the Apostles and it is a term of large signification both in Greek and Hebrew or Chaldee It is in both Languages the same as Sent a and so may stand for a common Messenger Deputy or Mandatary or for an Envoy from some great Person for an Embassador Ordinary or Extraordinary or any Plenipotentiary-Commissioner With the Jews therefore the Minister of the Synagogue who takes care of the Business of it under the Superiour Governours and reads the Prayers and who is call'd now more commonly Chazan (b) See §. VI. is also known by this Name as being the Deputy of the Congregation It is said too c that he goes by that Name with them who was sent by the Priests to collect their Dues the First-Fruits and Tenths and so they are term'd in the Imperial Law Neither do I find that the Talmud speaks of any higher Authority under that Style nor I suppose will the Rabbins themselves pretend that they have a compleat Information of all their former Government But however it is certain from Epiphanius that it was the Name of such Plenipotentiary-Commissioners as were sent by the chief of the Jews the High-Priest or Patriarch not only to gather Money but to visit and reform a Province and to confirm and displace its Officers For so he says d of one Josephus who was sent with that Power from their Patriarch then residing in Palestine into Cilicia that he brought back to him the Tenths and First Fruits of the Province and besides had displac'd there many of their Rulers of the Synagogues and of their Priests and of their Elders and of their Azanites which are their Deacons or Ministers And before d 2 Apostles are describ'd to be Men of great Authority who are Assessors to the Patriarch Answerable in some manner to this different acception of the Word with the Jews is the Use of it in the Christian Church For it is observ'd that Epaphroditus is call'd by St. Paul (e) Phil. 2.25 an Apostle of the Philippians in an inferior Sence for the Office he discharg'd of conveying their Contribution to him their great Apostle and as it were Patriarch And such it is justly suppos'd those Brethren were who are spoke of to the Corinthians in a Discourse concerning Contributions and are term'd (f) 2 Cor. 8.23 the Apostles of the Churches the Glory of Christ But this Name imported a higher Dignity and greater Power when it was attributed to the Twelve or to St. Paul They were as Assessors to Christ our Priest and our King hereafter in the places of the Princes of the Tribes to sit on Twelve Thrones and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel (g) Matt. 19.28 and in the mean time endued with Power from above to Act and Speak in his Name and to Govern his Church appointing Officers and prescribing Orders Of this sort was Saint Paul and such an Apostle he professes himself (h) 1 Cor. 15.9 not worthy to be call'd And further as They all were in this manner Apostles of Christ so is Christ himself said (i) Heb. 3.1 to be our Apostle as well as High-Priest being (k) John 20.21 SENT by the Father as they were sent by Him § III. NEXT to the Apostles are Bishops And this too is a Word that signifies at large both in the Hebrew and Greek a of the Old Testament In the Greek of the Septuagint it is said of the Officers of an Army both Captains over hundreds and Captains over thousands (a 2) Nu. 31.14 2 Kings 11.15 of the Provost or Alderman of a Ward (b) Neh. 11.9 of Overseers of Works and Payments (c) 2 Chr. 34. And so the Office is an Oversight or Charge as Eleazar had the Oversight and Charge of all the Tabernacle (d) Num. 4.16 and his Office or Charge let another take (e) Psal 109.8 The word answering to this in the Hebrew denotes a Steward over a Houshold (f) Gen. 39.5 a Superintendant over a City (g) 41.34 and in the Temple it stands for the Head and Director of any Office And the Overseer or Officer of the High-Priest (h) 2 Chr. 24.11 is said by Rabbi Salomon on the place to be the High-Priest's Vicegerent usually call'd the Sagan (i) Jer. 20.1 as also the chief Governour in the House of the Lord k is understood to be by Jonathan the Targumist l whom Kimchi m therefore stiles the High Overseer under the High-Priest Thus is this Word found to signifie in the Old Testament but the Talmudists as far as I can see take no notice of its Office and leave us to be informed of this as well as of the Apostleship from other hands The same Word in the Greek of the New Testament is taken in some Latitude too First of all our blessed Lord himself is call'd the Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls (m) 1 Pet. 2 25. as having the chief Oversight and Care of the Flock In a lower degree the Office of Bishoprick mention'd in the 109th Psalm is apply'd to the Apostleship which Judas lost and Matthias took (n) Acts 1.20 And yet lower Those also who are called Presbyters are at the same time named Bishops as those Presbyters or Elders which S. Paul sent for

order of Rabbins above the ordinary Rabbins who preside over them and are as the Princes or Fathers of the Consistory heretofore Secondly As the Talmudists tell us there Presbyters were indifferently of any Tribe neither was it necessary that they should be of the Tribe of Levi who compos'd the great Consistory of Jerusalem (o) Seld. Ibid. cap. 7. §. 5. though that Consistory in their opinion govern'd even in the Temple and over all that officiated there (p) Ibid. cap. 8. cap. 15. §. 12 c. And the Truth is according to the Modern Traditions those of the Tribe of Levi were not so absolute in the Temple nor of that consideration out of the Temple as they seem to have been by the Scripture and by Josephus And now at this time though the Priests receive sometimes some little due for the Redemption of the First-Born and are call'd before others to Read the Law and are preferr'd to give the Solemn Blessing in the Synagogues and to say Grace at Meals yet for the rest they are as common Israelites and under the Jurisdiction of the Rabbins For these Rabbins have order'd the Matter so that they are reputed to Represent the Priests and to succeed into their Sacerdotal Right claiming therefore to be free from Taxes and from Watch and Ward to have the Prevendition or Pre-emption in the Market and to have their Causes first dispatch'd in Courts of Justices (q) Leo de Mod. Cere des Juifs S. 12.3 Buxt Syn. J. 46. Maim Tal. Tor. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 10. And this possibly came to pass not only from the superseding of the main part of the Priestly Function by the Destruction of the Temple and from the ceasing of their Tithes and other Dues by the banishment of the People from their own Country but also from the great destruction that must have been ●uf●er'd by the Tribe of Levi in those cruel Devastations made by Tites and Adrian of the Holy Land and City in which places the Levites had their Residence and Imployment and which they would be sure to defend most zealously Whereas many other Jews liv'd at the same time dispers'd in remote Provinces escaping the War and its fury For then when very few Priests remain'd and those of all Jews durst least own themselves and when they were debarr'd from the Execution of that Office by which they had been so honourably distinguish'd no wonder if the other Tribes took the advantage and as it happens amongst Rival Offices encroach'd and usurp'd upon them And if any of the Rest were to deliver down the Law which the Priest's Lips had been us'd to preserve as Rabbi Juda took upon him the Office He as Holy as he was might comply so far with Modern Usurpation as to record it with the Traditions from Mount Sina And lastly We are all along bid to observe that these Presbyters and Rulers were Civil Magistrates who had the Government of the Common-Wealth and by that Title controul'd the High-Priests themselves (r) Ibid. l. 3. c. 8.11 an observation we need not dissemble if we are at the same time allow'd to remember that God Himself was the Supreme Governour of that Common-Wealth that even its Civil Laws were enacted by Him and therefore that the Judges of that Law were Sacred Officers and of a Policy that was Divine Hitherto these Elders have been chiefly consider'd as Administrators of their Civil Policy they had too the direct Administration of all their Worship that was not Sacrificial directing its Services and appointing its Officers Whereas therefore in a great City the Nasi or his Vicegerent and even the Presbyters in a larger Sense were the Archisynagogi Rulers or Heads of the Synagogue as it meant the Body or Community of the City So they were also Rulers of the Synagogue or Synagogues of that City as they were Congregations for Worship And where there were many Synagogues as there were in those Cities the same were Rulers over all of them though by their appointment and in their Name to particular Synagogues particular Presbyters and sometimes possibly of Limited Power might be especially deputed to take care of them § V. SUCH were the Elders of Jewish Common-wealth and Church and correspondent in some manner to these are the Christian Presbyters in the New Testament And first those properly call'd Apostles are stil'd Elders as representing the Twelve Princes of the Tribes who were the first and great Elders of Israel So St. Peter stiles himself a Fellow-Elder (a) 1 Pet. 5.1 and so the Appellation of Elders seems in one place of the Acts (b) Acts 11 3● to comprehend the Apostles also Next there are Elders distinct from the Apostles those mention'd often in the Acts just after them The Apostles and Elders (c) Act 15.2 4 6. And these because there is no mention made before of their Creation as there is of the Deacons may be presum'd to be the Seventy whom our Saviour had ordain'd according to the Number of the Consistory erected by Moses and then continued at Jerusalem And if these were Seventy Elders then St. James the Bishop of Jerusalem may be suppos'd to have been the President of them and if not the Prince for that honour they might leave to our Saviour always reputed as present with them yet the Vicegerent of the Prince and Father of the Council of the Seventy to which the other Apostles had join'd themselves in the manner of Assistants Extraordinary and as the High Priests and Princes of the Tribes had I suppose us'd to have an extraordinary Place in the Consistory of their Sanhedrim We find too that in all the considerable Cities where the Apostles founded Churches they Ordain'd Elders as Barnabas and Paul are recorded (d) Acts 14.23 to have done in Derbe Lystra Iconium and Antioch What was the number of these we are not told nor what Superiority there might be amongst them and in these circumstances also they answer to their Predecessors the Presbyters or Judges of Israel of whom as we have seen the Scripture has only said Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy Gates not expressing the number of those Provincial Judges nor distinguishing between the Prince or his Vicegerent and the rest of them The number I presume of our Christian Elders was various in various Places Where there were many one of them was appointed to be their Chief and Father of the Consistory if we will be guided in our Opinion by the very early uniform Practice of the next Age (e) Chap. VIII and where there was but one he too in probability was a Presbyter of that rank and had Authority to assume to himself Colleagues as the occasions of the Church should require And in this Supposition these Fathers Presbyters are those who are properly to be called Bishops in the determin'd sense of the Word as all Presbyters might be in the larger acception of it These Christian