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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	church_n	1,878	5	4.2003	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20966	A letter of a French Protestant to a Scotishman of the Covenant VVherein one of their chiefe pretences is removed, which is their conformitie with the French churches in points of discipline and obedience.	Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1640 (1640)	STC 7345; ESTC S111088	22,932	58

authority and their incroachments upon the civill power and their pretended independencie from any but the Pope whereby they make regnum in regno another kingdome in every kingdome But although I would not clip their wings so short as Calvin would have yet I wish for your owne good that the Churches of Scotland would yeeld to Bishops as much power as Calvin doth even the power of censures and of presenting and ordaining Priests c Calvin tractat de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Potestatem nominandi ordinandi retincant justum illud serium doctrinae vitae examen restituant quod sanè multis saeculis obsolevit Let Bishops retaine the power of naming and ordaining Priests Let them restore that just and serious examination of doctrine and life which is growne out of use many ages agone It is not then the use but the abuse of Bishops that Calvin and the Reformed Churches of France reject And were it in their power they would not put downe Bishops They onely crave the reformation of Religion and are ready to submit themselves to Episcopall power Zanchius above all the Outlandish Writers is expresse upon that point who indeed is no Frenchman but of the like Discipline This is his Protestation That before God and in his conscience Hier. Zanch. Thesib de vera reformandarum Ecclesiarum ratione Testor me coram Deo in mea conscientia non alio habere loco quàm Schismaticorum illos omnes qui in parte reformationis Ecclesiarum ponunt nullos habere Episcopos qui authoritatis gradu supra fuos compresbyteros emineant ubi liquidò possunt haberi Praeterea cum D. Calvino nullo non anathemate dignos censeo quotquot illi Hierarchiae quae se Domino Jesu submittit subjici nolunt he holds them all for no better then Schismatickes that set this downe as a part of reformation of the Churches to have no Bishops that have any eminence of degree and authoritie above their true fellow-Priests where they may well be had And besides that he holds with * That place cited out of Calvin is in his Treatise de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Calvin that they are all worthy of any execration that will not submit themselves unto that Hierarchie that submitteth it selfe unto the Lord Jesus Christ Here is a coard with two strings the authority of two worthy men together The same Zanchius saith a little before Hee that will receive and follow the use and the opinion of the universall Church Ibid. Qui universalis ominium locorum temporum usque ad hanc aetatem usum sensum Ecclesiae certum habet sequiturque interpretem facilè intelligit diversos gradus Presbyterorum Episcoporum in gubernatione Ecclesiastica esse secundum Dei verbum semper fuisse Proinde ubi vigent non esse abolendos ubicunque iniquitas temporum eos abolevit aut non tulit esse restituendos in all times and places unto this age for a certaine interpreter of Gods word will easily understand that the severall degrees of Priests and Bishops in the Ecclesiasticall government are and ever were according to Gods word and therefore where they stand still they must not bee abolished And where the contrarietie of times hath abolished or not suffered them they must bee set up againe This was also the tenet of Martin Bucer who assisted the reverend Bishops of England in the reformation And although he lived in a Church where Ministers were equall hee delivereth himselfe plainly a Bucer tract de reformanda Ecclesia qui invenitur tom 11. constitut Imperial Annitendum itaque ut ea omnino procurationis Ecclesiasticae ratio ordinatio quam Canones Episcopis Metropolitanis praescribunt restituatur servetur We must endeavour that all the manner and distribution of Ecclesiasticall government which the Canons prescribe unto Bishops and Metropolitans bee restored and maintained Beza himselfe who preferred equalitie before superioritie in the Church yet hath declared his dislike of those that resisted Episcopall power where it was established For in an Epistle of his to some brethren of England that would bee ruled by him rather then their Bishops at home hee b Beza Epist 12. ad quosdam Anglicarum Ecclesiarum fratres Hortamur ut omni animorum exacerbatione depositâ salvâ manente doctrinae ipsius veritate sanâ conscientiâ alii alios patienter ferant Regiae Majestati clementissimae omnibus Praesulibus suis ex animo obsequantur exhorteth them that leaving all bitternesse as long as the truth of the doctrine and puritie of conscience was safe they would beare one another with patience and obey the Queenes most gracious Majestie and all their Prelates with a free heart And writing to Bishop Grindall hee commends his c Idem Epist 23. ad Episcop Grindal Quòd tu igitur quorundam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertulisti Reverendissime vir in eo sanè insigne patientiae lenitatis Christianae specimen edidisti quo majore posthac poenâ digni erunt qui porro authoritatem tuam aspernabuntur Christian lenitie and patience for bearing with the selfe-conceited pride of some and saith that they shall deserve a greater punishment that will reject againe his authoritie I confesse this was much from Beza who was none of the best friends to the Episcopall degree but yet his desire of concord in the Church and obedience to publike order was greater then his aversion from Bishops And I wish that many among you were no worse disposed The latter Divines among the French are very expresse upon this point My Reverend Father Doctor Du Moulin in his * Peter Du Moulin in his Buckler of the faith upon the 30. Article of the French Confession Sect. 124. Buckler of the Faith is altogether for Episcopacie and proveth the Antiquitie of it and that it begun a yeere after our Saviours death And sheweth how the Apostles were the founders of that order sending the Reader to the 32 Chapt. of the booke of Prescriptions by Tertullian where hee reckoneth the Apostolicall Churches whose Bishops were established by the Apostles And whereas it is alledged against the Episcopall degree that there was in the Primitive Church two Bishops in one Towne hee tells you that in all the Antiquitie it is hard to find three or foure examples of two Bishops in one Towne Ibid. for the generall custome was against it as Theodoret Chrysostome and Hierome upon the first to the Philippians witnesse and Saint Austin in his 110th Epistle There also hee complaineth as farre as hee may of the disorders that follow equalitie relating and allowing the just objections of the English Clergie in these words They say AND THAT WITH GOOD REASON that no societie no family no common-wealth can prosper without some degrees of superioritie and that it is so among the Angels and in the government of the universall World That God established degrees

of superioritie in his Church under the Old Testament They say that to place a man of little capacitie and newly received into the Ministerie in like degree with an ancient Minister of the Church whom God hath endowed with more gifts and which hath served a long time in the Ministerie with commendation is the way to nourish pride in the younger and to dishonour those whom God hath honoured and to induce confusion As also that thereby the holy Ministery is become contemptible and that the superioritie of the Bishops of England hath been approved by the most worthy Pastours of our Churches How can one say more living under a different Discipline Any man may perceive that hee speaketh feelingly as one that had an especiall knowledge and experience of the inconveniences of his Discipline And that hee thinkes more yet then he saith In the conclusion hee craveth a favourable construction of all that the Reformed Divines of those Churches write against Bishops If sometimes saith he we speake against the authoritie of Bishops we condemne not Episcopall order in it selfe but speak onely of the corruption which the Church of Rome hath brought into the Episcopacie making it a temporall principalitie depending upon the Papall throne As hee teacheth that true doctrine in his bookes hee traineth his Scholars in the same This Thesis was lately defended by him in the Academy of Sedan where hee is Doctor of the Chaire * Petrus Molinaeus Thesib de notis Ecclesiae part 2. Thes 33. Episcopos Angliae post conversionem ad fidem ejuratum Papismum asserimus fuisse fideles Dei servos nec debuisse dese●ere munus vel titulum Episcopi Wee affirme that the Bishops of England after their conversion and abjuration of Popery were Gods faithfull servants and that they ought not to forsake the office or title of Bishop In his Bible full of marginall notes written with his owne hand hee expoundeth this Text Titus 1.5 Therefore I left thee in Greece that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Elders in every Citie as I have appointed thee This is his comment upon it a Oportuit Tito datam aliquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in caeteros symmystas jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut quod Timotheo dicitur Ne recipe accusationem contra Presbyterum dare videtur Timotheo tribunal supra Ministros Adde illud de Angelo Ephesi Nec si superioritas esset res mala Apostolis data esset potestas in caeteros This imports that some prebeminence was given to Titus above his other colleagues and the right of conferring orders As also that which is said to Timothy Receive no accusation against a Presbyter seemeth to give unto Timothy a tribunall over other Ministers The like is implyed in that Text of the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Revel 2.1 where there is but one Angell mentioned though there were many Priests in the Citie And if superioritie were an evill thing God would not have given power to the Apostles over the rest of the Clergie These are his private and serious thoughts upon that point wherein hee sought no mans satisfaction but his owne This is also the drift of learned Chamier in his Booke of the Papall Monarchie For hee runneth not to extremes as you doe As though because there must bee no Universall Bishop there must bee no Diocesan All his discourse comes to this c Chamier de Papali Monarchia lib. 3. cap. 14. Art 11. In Ecclesiis etiamsi singulos assignari Episcopos consultiùs existimetur tamen omnibus unum imponendum nulla ratio evincit That although it is thought more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches yet it can bee proved with no reason that there must bee one set over all leaving that ground for granted that it is more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches It is true he saith Lib. 10. cap. 5. that the government of the Church is not Monarchicall but Aristocraticall Lib. 10. cap. 7. Art 8. Aristocratia Episcoporum regimen quae ne tum quidem sublata est cum inducti sunt Metropolitani qui sibi subjectos Episcopos pro collegis habebant for he cals Aristocracie the government of Bishops which Aristocracie was not taken away when Metropolitanes were brought in that used the Bishops subject unto them as Colleagues He cannot more evidently condemne the Democracie of his Church than by saying that the government of the Church is Aristocraticall and the Bishops of England take not so much upon themselves as he ascribeth unto the first Bishops * Ibid. C. 5. Art 6 Constat igitur ne tum quidem cum hie Episcoporum à Presbyteris distinctorum ordo sive gradus est constitutus Episcopos fuisse tanquam Monarchas qui potestatem haberent in Clerū sed Principes Electos qui rebus deliberandis praeessent ficut necesse est in omni Aristocratia It is certaine saith he that even when the order or degree of Bishops distinct from that of Priests was established the Bishops were not like Monarchs having power over the Clergie but ELECTED PRINCES set over the deliberation and administration of businesses as it is necessary in all Aristocracies If you object since your countreymen are so good friends unto Episcopacie What is the reason that their practice is quite contrary Why have they no Bishops Why is parity of Ministers commanded in their Discipline Si licet et placidirationem admittitis edam I hope to shew to them that have some charity and equity that the French have such reasons for it which the Church of Scotland cannot borrow from them I. The Protestants of France were forced after a sort to dislike Bishops by the cruell usage which they received from them they will say with the Authour of the Apologie of the Confession of Auspurg Apolog. Confes August Art 14. Nos summâ voluntate cupimus conservare politiam Ecclesiasticam gradus in Ecclesia factos Sed Episcopi Sacerdotes nostros aut cogunt hoc doctrinae genus quod confessi sumus abjicere ac damnare aut novâ inaud itâ crudelitate miser os innocentes occidunt Hae causae impediunt quò minùs agnoscant hos Episcopos nostri Sacerdotes Wee desire with all our heart to preserve the Ecclesiasticall Policie and the degrees established in the Church But the Bishops either constraine our Priests to renounce and condemne the Doctrine of our Confession or kill the poore innocent men with new and unheard of cruelty These are the causes why our Priests will not acknowledge those Bishops And the reformed Churches may say of some of the Popish Bishops what S. Bernard was saying of those of his time * Bern. in Regist. Epist ad Maur. lib. 4. Epist 32. Heu heu Domine Deus Ipsi sunt in persecutione tua primi qui videntur in Ecclesm primatum diligere Alas alas