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A53956 The good old way, or, A discourse offer'd to all true-hearted Protestants concerning the ancient way of the Church and the conformity of the Church of England thereunto, as to its government, manner of worship, rites, and customs / by Edward Pelling. Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. 1680 (1680) Wing P1082; ESTC R24452 117,268 146

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to order the public Service of God and to take care that decency and a grave decorum might be in Christian Assemblies He was to see that such as would be Bishops and Deacons should be rightly qualified c. 3. 2. and himself to keep up his Authority by being an Example of Believers He was to allot a double Portion of c. 4. 12. maintenance to Elders that Ruled well under him and c. 5. 17. laboured in the Word He was to take cognizance of the 19. irregularities of Presbyters but with this caution that he should not receive an Accusation against an Elder but before two or three Witnesses And such as sinned he was to Rebuke before all He was to hold Ordinations but with 20. this Proviso That he should lay bands suddainly on no man 22. Briefly St. Paul gave him a plenitude of that power which he had himself And if to Model Churches to prescribe Rules to confer holy O deus to command examin judge and reprehend O fenders Openly and even Presbyters themselves I say if these are parts of Episcopal Power then was Timothy a Bishop indeed And I should be loth to see half that Charter given to a single Presbyter as is here given to Timothy by this Great Apostle 3. The third instance to shew that the Apostles setled the Episcopal form of Government is Titus whom Antiquity acknowledgeth to have been Metropolitan of Crete an Island consistng of an hundred Cities and to have been intrusted with the power of Modelling and Governing of all the Churches there That St. Paul left him there is clear from his own words and Tit. 1. 5. questionless his design was that Titus should remain and continue there unless summoned away upon some Emergency and for a Time only and even then St. Paul promised to send either Artemas or Tychicus to be his Vicar and Procurator c. 3. 12. in his absence Now that Titus was indeed a Bishop superior in Authority to Presbyters and invested with a Superintendency and Power over all his Clergy doth plainly appear from the Authority he had both to Ordain and to Judge of so many Bishops as St. Chrysostom declares he had For this cause Chrysost Hom. in Tit. 1. it was that when the Apostle himself could not stay in Crete to put every thing into due Order but was obliged to be gone he left Titus behind him to set in order the things that Tit. 1. 5 11. c. 2. 10. were wanting and unsettled at S. Paul's departure to ordain Bishops and to dispose of them into Cities into every City one to provide against the heterodox Preaching of Deceivers to stop their mouths to silence them and to rebuke them sharply and to admonish Hereticks once and again and then to excommunicate them upon their Contumacy This was Titus his Office and this was plainly the Exercise of Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction And to confirm this further two things are observable First that this Authority was given to Titus alone not to a College of Presbyters which 't is presumable S. Paul appointed before his going away but to Titus singly for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set things in order that thou shouldest ordain c. This argues a supreme and a sole Superintendency and Authority in Titus Secondly that there was a necessity for S. Paul's committing this Authority unto him for otherwise the things that were wanting could not be set in order nor could Ordinations or Censures be there for this cause left I thee in Crete Which is a manifest Argument that the Presbyters in Crete had no power either to ordain or to excommunicate or to do such acts of Jurisdiction for then why was Titus left to those purposes And yet we see S. Paul left him and for this cause left him so that unless we will offer violence to the Sence of Scripture we must confess that Titus was left and fix'd at Crete as Bishop and Metropolitan of the whole Island To these three Apostolical Bishops I might add many more Const Apost l. 7. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Names we meet with in Ecclesiastical Writers either occasionally and scatteringly mentioned as in Irenaeus Eusebius and divers others or more orderly collected as in the Book of Constitutions commonly called Apostolical But because the truth of this dependeth upon the Credit of Church History which yet we have no reason to question I shall forbear further Instances having already and I hope sufficiently shewed out of Scripture that the Order and Authority of Bishops was in being 〈◊〉 in the Apostles days and from them continued and transmitted to succeeding Ages 2. Having done then with the Proof of the Affirmative I proceed next with what brevity I can to answer that grand Argument usually brought to make good the Negative viz. that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter are indifferently and promiscuously used in the Apostolical Writings as if onely one Order of men were meant by them As for instance in Tit. 1. 2 5. Paul tells Titus that he left him in Crete as for other reasons so for this that he should Ordain Elders or Presbyters in every City Then ver 6. he layeth down the Qualifications of these Elders and as a reason for it he saith ver 7. for a Bishop must be blameless c. Here a Bishop and a Presbyter seem to be not two distinct Orders but one and the same and so some say that by a Presbyter is here meant a Bishop and others affirm that by a Bishop is here meant a Presbyter and hence are willing to conclude that in the Apostles time they were not thought to be two distinct Offices but Bishop and Presbyter to be one both in Name Order and Authority and so Prelacy must fall to the ground without any help from Scripture For the removing of this Difficulty three things are to be observed 1. That Aerius the Heretic was the first that ever found out or insisted on this Community and Identity of Names for the Writers before him in the first and second Age after the Apostles did not discourse at this rate could not discover such a promiscuous use of the words 2. The Catholick Writers after Aerius who thought as he did that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were common in the Apostles days did not yet think as that Heretic did affirm that the Office and Order were ever the same No they held that though Bishops were sometimes called Presbyters and Presbyters Bishops yet Bishops were a rank of Ministers above Presbyters both in Degree and Authority even in the Age of the Apostles 3. But then there is one Observation more for which I must thank a very Learned Prelate of our Church viz. that notwithstanding Vindic. Epist Ignat. p. 184. this Construction and late Pretence of the Promiscuous use of the words yet it doth not appear that the Scripture gives the Titles of