Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	church_n	1,754	5	4.4354	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50915	Of prelatical episcopacy, and vvhither it may be deduc'd from the apostolical times by vertue of those testimonies which are alledg'd to that purpose in some late treatises one whereof goes under the name of Iames, Arch-bishop of Armagh.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1641 (1641)	Wing M2133; ESTC R23425	13,884	28

those traditions which he receiv'd fill'd his writings with many new doctrines and fabulous conceits he tells us there that divers Ecclesiasticall men and Irenaeus among the rest while they lookt at his antiquity became infected with his errors Now if Irenaeus were so rash as to take unexamin'd opinions from an Author of so small capacity when he was a man we should be more rash our selves to rely upon those observations which he made when he was a Boy And this may be a sufficient reason to us why we need no longer muse at the spreading of many idle traditions so soon after the Apostles whilst such as this Papias had the throwing them about and the inconsiderate zeal of the next age that heeded more the person then the Doctrine had the gathering them up Where ever a man who had bin any away conversant with the Apostles was to be found thether slew all the inquisitive eares the exercise of right instructing was chang'd into the curiosity of impertinent fabling where the mind was to be edified with solid Doctrine there the fancy was sooth'd with solemne stories with lesse fervency was studied what Saint Paul or Saint Iohn had written then was listen'd to one that could say here hee taught here he stood this was his stature and thus he went habited and O happy this house that harbour'd him and that cold stone whereon he rested this Village wherein he wrought such a miracle and that pavement bedew'd with the warme effusion of his last blood that sprouted up into eternall Roses to crowne his Martyrdome Thus while all their thoughts were powr'd out upon circumstances and the gazing after such men as had sate at table with the Apostles many of which Christ hath profest yea thoughthey had cast out Divells in his name he will not know at the last day by this meanes they lost their time and truanted in the fundamentall grounds of saving knowledge as was seene shortly by their writings Lastly for Ireneus wee have cause to thinke him lesse judicious in his reports from hand to hand of what the Apostles did when we find him so negligent in keeping the faith which they writ as to say in his third Booke against Heresies that the obedience of Mary was the cause of salvation to her selfe and all mankind and in his fift Booke that as Eve was seduc't to fly God so the Virgin Mary was perswaded to obey God that the Virgin Mary might be made the Advocate of the Virgin Eve Thus if Irenaeus for his neerenesse to the Apostles must be the Patron of Episcopacy to us it is no marvell though he be the Patron of Idolatry to the Papist for the same cause To the Epistle of those brethren of Smyrna that write the Martyrdome of Polycarpus and stile him an Apostolicall and propheticall Doctor and Bishop of the Church in Smirna I could be content to give some credit for the great honour and affection which I see those brethren beare him and not undeservedly if it be true which they there say that he was a Prophet and had a voyce from Heaven to comfort him at his death which they could heare but the rest could not for the noise and tumult that was in the place and besides if his body were so pretious to the Christians that hee was never wont to pull off his shooes for one or other that still strove to have the office that they might come to touch his feet yet a light scruple or two I would gladly be resolv'd in if Polycarpus who as they say was a Prophet that never faild in what he foretold had declar'd to his friends that he knew by vision hee should die no other death then burning how it came to passe that the fire when it came to proofe would not doe his worke but starting off like a full saile from the mast did but reflect a golden light upon his unviolated limbes exhaling such a sweet odour as if all the incense of Arabia had bin burning in so much that when the bill-men saw that the fire was overaw'd and could not doe the deed one of them steps to him and stabs him with a sword at which wound such abundance of bloud gusht forth as quencht the fire By all this relation it appeares not how the fire was guilty of his death and then how can his prophesie bee fulfill'd Next how the standers by could be so soone weary of such a glorious sight and such a fragrant smell as to hasten the executioner to put out the fire with the Martyrs blood unlesse perhaps they thought as in all perfumes that the Smoake would bee more odorous then the flame Yet these good brethren say he was Bishop of Smyrna No man questions it if Bishop and Presbyter were anciently all one and how does it appeare by any thing in this testimony that they were not If among his other high titles of propheticall Apostolicall and most admired of those times he bee also stil'd Bishop of the Church of Smirna in a kind of speech which the Rhetoricians call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for his excellence sake as being the most famous of all the Smyrnian Presbyters it cannot bee prov'd neither from this nor that other place of Irenaeus that hee was therefore in distinct and monarchicall order above the other Presbyters it is more probable that if the whole Presbytery had beene as renowned as he they would have term'd every one of them severally Bishop of Smyrna Hence it is that wee read sometimes of two Bishops in one place and had all the Presbyters there beene of like worth we might perhaps have read of twenty Tertullian accosts us next for Polycrates hath had his answer whose testimony state but the question right is of no more force to deduce Episcopacy then the two former He saies that the Church of Smirna had Polycarpus plac't there by Iohn and the Church of Rome Clement ordain'd by Peter and so the rest of the Churches did shew what Bishops they had receiv'd by the appointmēt of the Apostles None of this will be contradicted for we have it out of the Scripture that Bishops or Presbyters which were the same were left by the Apostles in every Church and they might perhaps give some speciall charge to Clement or Polycarpus or Linus and put some speciall trust in them for the experience they had of their faith and constancy it remaines yet to be evinc't out of this and the like places which will never be that the word Bishop is otherwise taken then in the language of Saint Paul and the Acts for an order above Presbyters We grant them Bishops we grant them worthy men we grant them plac't in severall Churches by the Apostles we grant that Irenaeus and Tertul affirme this but that they were plac't in a superiour Order above the Presbytery shew from all these words why we should grant 'T is not enough to say the Ap left this man