Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	successor_n	2,181	5	9.3340	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53660	A plea for Scripture ordination, or, Ten arguments from Scripture and antiquity proving ordination by presbyters without bishops to be valid by J.O. ... ; to which is prefixt an epistle by the Reverend Mr. Daniel Williams.	Owen, James, 1654-1706.; Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.	1694 (1694)	Wing O708; ESTC R32194	71,514	212

perform that Ministerial Act in a regular manner for it 's included in their Commission Popish Ordainers did not intentionally give the Reforming Power to the first Reformers yet no Protestant will question but it was annext to their Office as Ministers Now the Office of the Ministry being from Christ and not from Man we must not go to the words of the Ordainer but to the instituting Law of Christ to know what the Office is As if the City and Recorder should chuse and invest a Lord Mayor and tell him you shall not have all the Power given by the King's Charter it 's a Nullity he shall have all the Power that the Charter giveth him by virtue of his Office CHAP. V. The Ordinations of the greater part of the Reformed Churches are by Presbyters Their not having superiour Bishops cannot unchurch them nor is it a Case of Necessity as is pretended by some For 1. They might have Bishops if they would 2. Some of them refused them when offered 3. Their Learned Writers assert an inherent Power in Presbyters to Ordain and never use this Plea of Necessity 4. Their Confessions make all Ministers equal THAT Ordination which is the same with the Ordinations in the Reformed Churches beyond Sea is valid but such is Ordination by meer Presbyters Therefore If theirs be null and the Roman or Popish Ordinations valid then it 's better be of the Roman Popish Church then of the Reformed but the Consequence is absurd I know but two things can be replied to this Argument 1. That the Reformed Churches have no true Ministers for want of Episcopal Ordination Thus Mr. Dodwel and others who would have us believe the Romish Church to be a true Church and receive the Pope as the Patriarch of the West These Gentlemen have cast off their Vizard and give us to know what they would be at They condemn the forreign Reformed Churches as no Churches their Sacraments as no Sacraments and consequently no Salvation to be had in their Communion Like the Donatists of old they confine Salvation to their own Party and Way It 's unaccountable that any who call themselves Protestants should unchurch the greatest and purest part of Reform'd Christians in favour of a Despotick Prelacy which hath no foundation in Scripture or the best Antiquity The being of Ministry and Churches must depend upon a few Men who look more like State-Ministers then Ministers of Christ and are generally more busie in managing Intrigues of Government then in preaching the word in season and out of season Can any imagine that such Pastors as rarely preach the Gospel as not above once in three years visit their Flock that have many thousands of Souls under their charge whose Faces they never saw that assume to themselves a Grandeur more agreeable to the Princes of the World then to the Simplicity and Humility required in the Ministers of the Gospel that entangle themselves with the Affairs of this Life contrary to the Scriptures and the Old Canons I say can any imagine such Pastors to be so necessary to the Church that there must be neither Ministry nor Sacraments nor Worship of God nor Salvation without them O happy Rome O miserable Reformed Churches if the Case be thus 2. Others that are more moderate say The Case of the Reformed Churches is a Case of Necessity they have no Bishops nor can have them Ordinations by meer Presbyters may be lawful where Bishops cannot be had I answer 1 The Case of the forreign Churches is no Case of Necessity for if they have a mind of Bishops what hinders their having of them Is it the Magistrates It cannot be said of Holland Switzerland Geneva c. where they have Magistrates of their own Suppose France and some other places would not have admitted of it that should have been no bar to the Order if they had been desirous of it The primitive Christians were under Heathen Magistrates for three hundred years who were generally professed Enemies to the Ministry and Churches yet they wanted no Ministerial Order of Christ's appointment Christ never appointed an Order of Ministers in his Church which may not be had in the most difficult times It 's true if the Civil Magistrate be against Bishops it may eclipse their Lordly greatness but it need not prejudice their Ius Divinum if they have any Why cannot the Apostles Successors subsist with as little dependance upon Authority as the Apostles themselves did Do Spiritual Men need Carnal Weapons to defend their Order yet it cannot be denied but that even in France the Protestants had their Immunities and a Polity of their own by virtue of the Edict of Nants which enabled them had they pleas'd to get Diocesan Bishops They had their Synods for Church Government and Moderators to preside in them and why not Bishops also had they judged them necessary Nor is it to be supposed that their French Masters would have liked them the worse for conforming to their own Ecclesiastical Government Thuanus a moderate Papist thinks it was an Errour in their Constitution that they neglected the superiour Order of Bishops in their first Reformation for the supporting of their interest The want of them did not prejudice their Constancy to the Truth as appears by their late Sufferings 2. Time hath been when the French Churches were earnestly sollicited particularly by Bishop Morton to receive a Clergy by the Ordination of the English Bishops which they refused Peter Moulin in his Letter to the Bp. of Winchester excusing himself for not making the difference betwixt Bishops and Presbyters to be of Divine appointment he pleads That if he had laid the difference on that foundation the French Churches would have silenced him 3. How come the Learned Wri●te of the forreign Churches that vindicate their Ordinations against the Papists to forget this Plea of Necessity They never say They would have Bishops but cannot have them but they justifie their Ordinations as according to Scripture and assert an inherent Power in Presbyters as such to Ordain This is undeniable to any body that reads their Dicourses upon this Subject See Daillé Moulin Bucer Voetius Sadeel c. that professedly write of Ordination against the Papists besides the vast numbers that treat occasionly of this Subject in their Common Places and other Writings such as Melancthon Musculus Zanchy Ravanel the Leyden Professors c. who all insist upon the Right of Presbyters to Ordain It 's true of late years some Arts have been used to pro●ure Letters from some eminent for●eign Divines to condemn the Noncon●ormists here without an impartial hear●ng of our Case That we have been misrepresented to them is evident by Dr. Morley's Letter to the famous Bochart who vindicates us from the Doctor 's Calumny Some also have o● late submitted to Re-ordination who are more to be pitied then censured fo● they wanted Bread and could have no● Relief without Conforming to