Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	council_n	3,236	5	6.7056	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70099	An exact enqviry after ancient truths, both in scripture and fathers touching the subsistence of the Church of God, digested into three parts : viz. I. True worship. II. Dominion, or divine jurisdiction. III. Discipline, reduced from our father Adams time, through all ages, to these present times ... / by W. Fenwick ...	Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682.	1643 (1643)	Wing F724; ESTC R21240	51,760	74

diligence in every place of the Congregation they might be ready to suppresse by divine instruction exhortation and admonition out of the word of God Murmurings grudgings contentions strife cursings railings and all sorts of inordinate walkings This was the private and particular duty of these sorts of Elders by the power of the Word to kill the Cockatrice in the egge and to pull up the weeds of sinne by the roots For this cause they are described in the fourth of the Revelation to be the wings of the foure beasts placed round about their bodyes full of eyes within for they are knit unto the Ministers in a peculiar and inseparable neerenesse and their discerning operation is not to extend beyond the bounds of the Professors of the Church for as Paul saith what have wee to doe with those that are without These sorts of Elders are so necessarily annexed to the publicke ministration of the Word as that the Church cannot be without them but that by the want thereof she doth expose her selfe to all kind of dangers externall and internall like a bird without wings Therefore Christ tooke not away this kind of Elders but rather established them in their function and office both in private and publicke as in the 18. of Matth. 15. 16. 17. If thy brother trespasse got and tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone if hee heare thee thou hast wonne thy brother If he heare thee not take yet with thee one or two that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be ●●●firmed And if he will not vouchsafe to heare them then tell the Church Which is to make the offence and the offender knowne to the Congregation the Elders acquainting the Pastor the Pastor acquainting the Congregation they all joyne in publicke censure and discipline Paul hath some rules which pertaine to private admonition for it ought to be done in all gravitie prudence and in much love Galat. 6. 1. If a man bee fallen by occasion into any sinne yee which are spirituall restore such a one with the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe lest thou also bee tempted Beare one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ The Elders ought to excell in brotherly love and wisedome and to use their exhortations with much temperance as Paul hath set before them in another place 1 Tim. 5. 1. Rebuke not an Elder but exhort him as a fathers and the younger men as brethren The elder women as mothers and the younger as sisters with all purenesse And there is another particular dutie which pertaines to these Elders as also to the Pastors and Ministers which is to visit the sicke and those that are burthened or troubled in conscience as Iames saith If any be sicke let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray for him and anoynt him with oyle in the name of the Lord For oyle is an embleme of the holy Ghost which by comfortable exhortations out of the word of God with prayer is like oyle unto the bones or as wine that glads the heart Such refreshment are the Elders to the sicke for the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinne it shall be forgiven him And for this cause there is a mutuall confession among Christians when any thing doth vehemently oppresse the conscience therefore saith James confesse your faults one to another and pray one for another that yee may be healed for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much if it be fervent Of Discipline and censure Now I come to the second part of government which consisteth also in these three functions The first sort is called promiscuously Pastors Teachers Bishops for they have received the gift of one and the same spirit according to the measure of Christ as Ephes. 4. For the gathering together of the Saints for the worke of the ministery and for the edification of the body of Christ untill wee all meet together in the unitie of faith and knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect Man and unto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ The second sort is Deacons The third is called by a generall name in common to them and the Pastors Teachers and Bishops which is the name of Elders for that in their publicke execution of Discipline they are joyntly united so that though the Pastor have the leading voyce and precedencie yet he is not to execute nor pronounce sentence in the Churh ●●thout the Elders nor yet to ordaine either Deacons Elders or Pastors without their counsell and the generall consent of the Church so that the Pastors Teachers and Bishops are not to beare the burthen alone it would bee too heavy for them as it was for Moyses if they bore the like conscience to God as Moyses did and if it were too heavy a burden for one man in those dayes when the Church was but one Nation and but one Congregation and had but one Tabernacle How must it not now needs be a farre greater weight when the Church is many Nations farre and wide dispersed and many distinct Congregations But notwithstanding the Elders be joyned in one power with the Pastors and Bishops so that nothing ought to bee done without them the Pastors have this preheminence that the worke both of Discipline censure and ordination of Elders Pastors and Deacons is attributed unto them as most proper to their function For this cause Paul tells Titus in his Epistle cap. 1. that he left him in Crete that hee should continue to redresse things that remained and ordaine Elders in every Citie as saith he I appointed thee And Acts the 1423. And when they ordained them Elders by election in every Church and prayed and fasted they commended them to the Lord in whom they beleeved For neither divine censure nor ordination could be done without them neither would the Apostles nor Pastors of the primitive times for the space of two hundred and fifty yeares either censure or ordaine any Elders Pastors or Deacons without the Election and counsell of the Church and Elders But a little after these times when pride began to creepe into the hearts of the Pastors Teachers and Bishops and that the zeale and care of the Elders grew cold and negligent as Cyprian Bishop of Carthage lib. 4. speaking of the cause of the then present persecutions among other things saith What plagues what stripes doe we not deserve when no not the Confessours and Elders doe keepe Discipline And from this degree of luke-warmnesse it came to be omitted and after the Nicene Councell quite extinct and wiped out of memory So that no marvell if our age call it the new-brought-in discipline and government of Pastors Elders and People In this discourse of Discipline I must have relation to that which is gone before for that which is part of government in the