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	church_n	pastor_n	3,324	5	9.0283	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69622	English Puritanisme containing the maine opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the realme of England / written by William Ames ...	Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618.; Ames, William, 1576-1633.	1641 (1641)	Wing B4158; ESTC R14601	11,152	25

claime unto and is in possession of the like universall Supremacy hath more warrant in the word of God to the same then any Metropolitane or Diocesan not dependant upon him hath or can have So that they hold that by the word of God either there must be no Metropolitans and Diocesans or else there must be a Pope 5. They hold that no Ecclesiasticall Minister ought to exercise or accept of any Civill publique jurisdiction and authority but ought to be wholly imployed in spirituall Offices and dueties to that Congregation over which he is set And that those Civill Magistrats weaken their owne Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiasticall Pastor to exercise any civill jurisdiction within their Realmes Dominions or Seignories 6 They hold that the highest and Supreame office and authority of the Pastor is to preach the Gospel solemnely and publickly to the Congregation by interpreting the written word of God and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them They hold that this was the greatest worke that Christ and his Apostles did and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall authority whatsoever 7. They hold that the Pastor or Minister of the word is not to teach any Doctrine as to the Church grounded upon his owne Judgement or Opinion or upon the judgement or opinion of any or all the men in the world But only that truth that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently and apparently by the word of God soundly interpreted and that the people are not bound to beleeve any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever upon any ground whatsoever except it be apparently justified by the word or by necessary consequent deduced from the same 8. They hold that in interpreting the Scriptures and opening the sense of them he ought to follow those rules onely that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writing to wit by waying the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written by waying the Circumstance of the place by comparing one place with another and by considering what is properly spoken and what tropically or figuratively And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the divine word for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places then to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man 9. They hold that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by preaching to interpret and apply the word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the ministers of Jesus Christ who sendeth none into his ministery and service but such as he adorneth in some measure with Spirituall gifts And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones mother tongue the Scriptures c. which any ordinary Turke or Infidell hath can be called in any congruity of Speech a ministeriall guift of Christ 10. They hold that in the assembly of the Church the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the congregation to God in prayer and that the people are onely to testifie their assent by the word Amen And that it is a Babilonian confusion for the Pastor to say one peece of a prayer and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature is more delightfull and effectuall the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent 11. They hold that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors or any other of her Officers any other ministeriall dueties Offices Functions Actions or Ceremonies either in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himselfe if he were in person upon the Earth and did exercise a ministeriall office in some Church 12. They hold that it is as great an injury to force a congregation or Church to maintaine as their Pastor with tithes and such like donations that person that either is not able to instruct them or that refuseth in his owne person ordinarily to doe it as to force a man to maintaine one for his wife that either is not a woman or that refuseth in her owne person to doe the dueties of a wife unto him 13. They hold that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor whose speciall office should be to instruct by opening the sense of the Scripture to the Congregation and that particularly in the maine grounds and principles of Religion CHAP. IIII. Concerning the Elders 1 FOr as much as through the malice of Sathan there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and Scandals committed that redound to the reproch of the Gospel are a stumbling block to many both without and within the Church and sith they judg it repugnant to the word of God that any Minister should be a Sole Ruler and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse Province or Nation they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congregation should make choise of other officers as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spirituall regiment of the congregation who are by office jointly with the ministers of the word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation and one of another that so every one may be more weary of their wayes and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to prayer and Doctrine and by their means may be made better acqainted with the estate of the people when others eyes besides their owne shall wake and watch over them 2 They hold that such onely are to be chosen to this Office as are the gravest honestest discreetest best grounded in Religion and the Ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation such as the whole Congregation doe approve of respect for their wisdome holinesse and honesty and such also if it be possible as are of civill note and respect in the world and able without any burden to the Church to maintain them selves either by their lands or any other honest civill trade of life neither doe they thinke it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church that tradesmen and artificers indowed with such qualities as are above specified should be admitted to bee Overseers of the Church as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters and in all respects for person quality and state as base and vile as the basest in the Congregation should be

by Christ in the new Testament and no other 5 They hold that every established Church ought as a speciall prerogative wherewith shee is endowed by Christ to have power and liberty to elect and chuse their owne Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Officers and that is a greater wrong to have any such forced upon them against their wils then if they should force upon men wives or upon womens husbands against their will and liking 6 They hold that the Ecclesiasticall Officers and Ministers of one Church ought not to beare any Ecclesiasticall Office in another neither as they are Officers in one Congregation can they officially administer in another but ought to be tyed unto that Congregation of which they are members and by which they are elected into Office And they are not without just cause and such as may be approved by the Congregation to forsake their Callings wherein if the Congregation shall be perverse and will not hearken to reason They are then to crave the assistance and helpe of the Civill Magistrate who alone hath power and who ought by his civill sword and authority procure to all members of the Church whether Governours or others freedome from all manifest injuries and wrongs 7 They hold that the Congregation having once made choyse of their Spirituall Officers unto whom they commit the Regiment of their soules they ought not without just cause and that which is apparantly warrantable by the Word of God to discharge deprive or depose them But ought to live in all Canonicall obedience and subjection unto them agreeable to the Word of God 8 They hold that the Lawes Orders and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction of the visible Churches of Christ if they be lawfull and warrantable by the Word of God are no wyaes repugnant to any civill State whatsoever whether Monarchicall Aristocraticall or Democraticall but to tend to the further establishing and advancing of the right and prerogatives of all and every of them And they renounce and abhorre from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or Policy that is any wayes repugnant to any civill State whatsoever whether Monarchicall Aristocraticall or Democraticall but doe tend to the further establishing and advancing of the right and prerogatives of all and every of them And they renounce and abhorre from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Policy that is any way repugnant and derogatory to any of them specially to the Monarchicall State which they acknowledge to be the best kinde of Civill Government for this Kingdome 9 They hold and beleeve that the equality in Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Authority of Churches and Church-Ministers is no more derogatory and repugnant to the State and glory of a Monarch then the parity of equality of Schoole-masters of severall Schooles Captaines of severall Campes Shepheards of severall flockes of sheep or Masters of severall Families Yea they hold the cleane contrary that inequality of Churches and Church-Officers in Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Authority was that principally that advanced Antichrist unto his throne and brought the Kings and Princes of the earth unto such vassalage under him and that the Civill Authority and glory of Secular Princes and States hath ever decayed and withered the more that the Ecclesiasticall Officers of the Church have bin advanced and lifted up in Authority beyond the limites and confines that Christ in his Word hath prescribed unto them CHAP. III. Concerning the Ministers of the Church 1 THey hold that the Pastors Teachers and ruling Elders of particular Congregations are or ought to be highest Spirituall Officers in the Church over whom by any Divine Ordinance there is no Superiour Pastor but onely Jesus Christ And that they are led by the Spirit of Antichrist that arrogate or take upon themselves to be Pastors of Pastors 2 They hold that there are not by Divine Institution in the Word any ordinary Nationall Provinciall or Diocesan Pastors or Ministers under which the Pastors of particular Congregations are to be subject as inferiour Officers And that if there were any such that then the Word of God would have set them downe distinctly and more precisely then any of the rest For the higher place that one occupieth in the Church of the more necessity he is unto the Church the more carefully would Christ the Head of the Church have beene in pointing him out and distinguishing him from other Hence in the Old Testament the high Priest his Title Office Function and speciall Administration and Jurisdiction is more particularly and precisely set downe then the Office of any of the inferiour Priests and Levites Also in the New Testament the Office of a Pastor is more distinctly and more precisely set down then of a Doctor or any other inferiour Church-Officer So that a man may as well call into question the whole New Testament as doubt whether there ought to be a Pastor in every Congreation or doubt of his proper Office and Function and if by Gods Ordinance there should be an Ordinary Ecclesiasticall Officer above the Pastors of particular Congregations then Christ out of all question would with that speciall care and cost hath set it forth by Titles Prerogatives peculiar Offices Functions and Gifts That the Churches and people of God should have reason rather to doubt of any Office or Jurisdiction then of the peculiar Office or Jurisdiction of the Primates Metrapolitanes Archbishops and Prelates of the world 4 They hold that if there were a Supreame Nationall Ecclesiasticall Minister or Pastor that should be the Prince of many thousand Pastors that then also Christ as he did in the Jewish Church would have appointed a solemne Nationall or Provinciall Leiturgie or worship unto which at some times of the yeare the whole body of the People should ascend and that unto the Metropolitan City as unto a Jerusalem and that he would as he did in the Jewish Church more precisly and particularly have set downe the manner of solemnization thereof then of his Prochical worship For as much therefore as they cannot read in the New Testament of any higher or more solemne worship then of that which is to be performed in a particular Congregation they cannot be perswaded that God hath appointed any higher Ministers of his service and worship under the New Testament then the elect Ministers of particular Congregations 4 They hold that the High Priest of the Jewes was typicall and in a figure the supreame head of the whole Catholick Church which though it were visible only in the Province and Nation of Jury Yet those of other Nations and Countries as appeare by the History of Acts Even though they were Ethiopians were under this high Priest And acknowledged homage unto him So that he was not a Provinciall Metropolitane but in very deed an Occumenicall and universall Bishop of the whole world And therefore they hold this being the best ground in the word for Metropolitane and Provinciall Pastors or Bishops that the Pope of Rome who alone maketh