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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	aaron_n	abraham_n	moses_n	57	3	6.5344	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30625	A treatise of church-government occasion'd by some letters lately printed concerning the same subject / by Robert Burscough ...	Burscough, Robert, 1651-1709.	1692 (1692)	Wing B6137; ESTC R2297	142,067	330

not the least appearance that he had any Collegues join'd in Commission with him whose Votes were necessary for the performance of what was expected from him and since he alone is represented as responsible for the miscarriages of the Christians at Pergamus 't is manifest that they were all under his Jurisdiction He might have Subordinate Officers but he had no Equals If the Angels of the Churches had such power as I have ascrib'd to them there is no ground to suspect that they unjustly usurp'd it For if it be a good Argument that the Text it self of the Old Testament had not been corrupted by the Scribes and Pharisees when our Saviour and his Apostles were upon Earth that neither of them laid it to the charge of those wicked men we may conclude from the Epistles directed to these Angels that our Lord was not offended at the Station which they had in the Churches since he censures their faults and makes that no part of them But this is not all that may be said for it He plainly signifies his approbation of it both in condemning their former remisness and in exciting them to greater vigour in the exercise of their Office This agrees exactly with the Historical Accounts that we have of the first Age and particularly with what Clemens Alexandrinus relates of S. John who as he tells us visited the Regions adjacent to Ephesus partly that he might form Churches partly that he might add fit persons to the Clergy and partly that he might Ordain Bishops And if there be any doubt remaining of what Quality they were it may be resolv'd from hence that the Bishop of a City not far from Ephesus is said to be a person placed over All which Character could belong to a Prelate only And as it is probable that this Prelate was the Angel of the Church of Smyrna so it is manifest from the Transaction which I have mention'd that those of his Order were of Divine or Apostolical Appointment CHAP. X. Objections against Episcopacy taken from the Writings of the first Century consider'd I Have shew'd that the Churches of Jerusalem and Philippi of Ephesus and Crete the Churches of Smyrna and Pergamus Thyatira and Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea were govern'd by Bishops in the first Century And one need but read the second and third Book of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History or S. Jerom's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers to find that Bishops then presided in the Churches of Antioch and Rome of Alexandria and Athens and to be inform'd who they were This may give us reason to think that all the Churches in the World were at that time under an Episcopal Administration especially if it appear that they were so in the following Age But before I come to make enquiry into that it may be requisite to remove out of the way some Objections that relate to the Apostles days 1. You argue from Acts 20.17 28. Titus 1.5 7. that mere Presbyters were Bishops And this I am ready to grant But then it must be acknowledged that the Presbyters mention'd in those places were subordinate to other Pastors and consequently a continuance of their Office supposes a continuance of such Superiors as they had to the end of the World Their Superiors were S. Paul and Titus and if there be any question whether the Name of Bishops may be ascribed to them it may be determin'd from what has been said already For if it belongs to the Apostles as I have prov'd from the words of S. Peter and some passages of the Ancients it may fitly be apply'd not only to the Twelve but to all their Colleagues But Episcopacy you tell me is a word of ample signification for 't is not only to be met with in Homer Plutarch Cicero but it is apply'd to God by Basil and to the Elders by Peter nothing therefore is deducible from it as to the special nature of any Office except by way of Analogy And what then Did I ever affirm that it had but one sense in all the Books where it occurs whether they are Sacred or Profane Did I ever assert that none but Apostles were called Bishops and deduce from that Title an account of the special Nature of their Office If you can impute to me neither of these things you must be content to fight with your own shadow And I shall think it enough that the instances I have produced perform what I design'd by them They shew that in affirming the Apostles were Bishops and particularly that S. James was a Bishop whatever exceptions some have taken against it we speak the Language of the Scripture and the Fathers They also shew that if mere Presbyters were Bishops others had the same denomination who had Jurisdiction over them and answer the Objections against Prelacy that have been rais'd from Acts 20.17 28. and other places 2. You argue from Clemens Romanus that in the first Age there were but two Ranks of Ecclesiastical Officers because he mentions no more when he speaks of the Bishops and Deacons that were constituted by the Apostles of those that afterwards should believe As if the whole Scheme of the Government which the Apostles established might be taken from that one Act or they had done nothing but what this Author left upon Record But as Epiphanius tells us All things could not be regulated by them on a sudden And the Churches of their Plantation afford us the best Pattern of Ecclesiastical Polity not as they were only in design or in their infancy but as they had receiv'd from their Founders their due lineaments and just proportions and were grown up to some perfection This might have been a sufficient Answer to what you have objected from the place before us had you demonstrated that when Clemens only mentions two Ranks of Ministers he meant to exclude a greater number But this you have not prov'd as one might have expected you should before you built so much upon it Because persons differing in Degree or Order sometimes come under the same denomination There were many that were said to be Rulers of the same Synagogue as some have gather'd from Mark 5.22 Yet one of those Rulers was the President There were many that at the same time were said to be Princes of Asia yet one of them was called The Asiarcha by way of Eminence and distinguish'd from the rest in Dignity and Power as Spanhemius and Harduinus collect from some Ancient Coins and from the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna And as a Learned Man of our own observes Aaron and his Successor Eleazar are never styled High Priests in the Books of Moses but Priests only and yet the other Priests were subject to them when they had no distinct Title Clemens Romanus himself speaking of Abraham says that all the Priests and Levites were descended from him and in one of the Members of that Division he must be suppos'd