Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	1,708	5	10.0860	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

made up of converted Gentiles Now over each of these Churches there did preside a Bishop with his Deacons so that frequently you shall find in Church-History two several Bishops in one City 2. Secondly that these and the Neighbouring Bishops were wont to convene and meet together to consult concerning the ordering and management of Ecclesiastical Matters 3. And thirdly that the necessities and condition of places were such in the beginning that all Churches were not so compleatly and perfectly modelled at the first as they were in process of time For as Churches were greater or less in proportion so were Church-Officers more or fewer in number Where the multitude of Christians was not great there a Bishop and his Deacon were enough to discharge the work of the Ministry where the numbers of Christians did increase there Presbyters were appointed to assist the Bishop and to act under him and where an Apostle thought good not to fix any Bishop but to hold the Government of a Church immediately in his own hands there he did commonly appoint a College or Bench of Presbyters to perform Ministerial Offices as his Proxies in his absence and by his Authority derived and delegated unto them For so did St. Paul keep the Superintendency over the Church of Corinth in his own hands as their immediate and sole Bishop because he had converted them to the Faith and what the Presbyters did in excommunicating that incestuous person they did it by St. Paul's Spirit that is by 1 Cor. 5. 4. his Episcopal Authority and Power committed unto him by Christ I verily as absent in Body but present in Spirit or by my Authority have judged already concerning him saith the Apostle This Observation will give us to understand the meaning Epiph. haeres 75. of that which we collect out of Epiphanius that in one Church there were Bishops and Deacons only where the numbers of Converts were small in another there were Presbyters without any Bishops besides an Apostle where there was need of many Ministers and yet one could not be found that was so fit for the Bishoprick in others agen there were Bishops Presbyters and Deacons too where the condition of the place did require it and the worth and abilities of the Men did admit of it Now then to come to the Objection St. Paul gives Timothy an 1 Tim. 3. account of the Qualifications necessary in Bishops and this questionless was in order to their Ordination But how doth it appear that Presbyters are meant by the word Bishops Were Presbyters now to be Ordained Did the word of God Act. 19. 20. grow and prevail so mightily in the Ephesian Churches and yet no Presbyters in them Was St. Paul among them for the space of three years preaching disputing and converting so many Act. 20. 31. Multitudes to the Faith and yet ordained no Presbyters to water what he had so prosperously planted And if Presbyters were ordained were setled in the Churches of Ephesus before the Apostles departure to Macedonia what necessity was there for him to send his Son Timothy Instructions concerning the Ordination of Presbyters especially when he hoped to return unto him shortly Divines conceive that this Epistle was sent by 1 Tim. 3. 14. him soon after he departed from Ephesus and were all the Presbyters dead in that little time 'T is hardly to be believed that Presbyters were wanting but Bishops were For hitherto St. Paul had been with the Ephesians for the most part in his own person he had governed them in his own person and had exercised his Episcopal Authority in his own person But now he was gone leaving Timothy in his room he was the first Bishop that was fixt at Ephesus and the only Bishop indeed now and yet but a young Man that had need of other Bishops to concur with him and help him in his Office and considering that St. Paul was uncertain when he should see him 1 Tim. 3. 15. again there was an urgent necessity for him to write speedily to his Son that other Bishops might be ordained that other Churches might be guarded from the Gnostic Seducers as well as Ephesus it self the great Metropolis There is no necessity then for us to conceive that St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy did mean Presbyters when he spake of Bishops but rather that he gave directions for the Ordination of those who were to be Bishops indeed to be invested with Episcopal Power and to preside over other Cities as Timothy did over Ephesus in St. Paul's own Chair Again the Apostle saluteth the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Phil. 1. 1. But there is no Demonstrative Reason to constrain nor probable Argument to induce us to believe that he directed his salutation to Presbyters much less that he gave them the Title of Bishops For there are several fair accounts to be given of this matter either as some conceive that there were two Bishops over two Churches in Philippi Jewish and Gentile Christians as 't was usual in other places or as others are of Opinion that the Neighbouring Bishops were now assembled at Philippi as 't was usual at other times or as others are persuaded that the Salutation is sent not to but from the Bishops and Deacons and so the words are to be read thus with a Parenthesis Paul and Timotheus the Servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Grace be unto you c. But which way soever we interpret the Text we are so far from finding any Presbyters in the Salutation that there is no argument to prove that they were at all in the City whither the Salutation was sent For Epiphanius tells us that many Churches at the first were ordered by Bishops and Deacons only and then why not the Churches of Philippi also Thus their whole Argument fails them who would prove the Office and Order of Bishop and Presbyter to have been the same in the Apostles days because forsooth the Name is given to both in Scripture Though the Consequence would not be good should their grand Principle be granted yet there is no solid reason for us to grant the Principle it self And therefore I shall not stick to conclude peremptorily That the Order of Bishops both as to name and thing is so far from being either an Antichristian or an Ecclesiastical Ordinance that it was instituted by Christ himself and founded in the Apostles of Christ and by them so establish'd and continued in all the Churches of Christ that for 1500 years together no Church in the world being perfectly and rightly form'd was ever under any other sort of Government but that the Episcopal Office and Authority hath through a continual Succession of Ages been communicated transmitted and handed down to the whole Catholick Church even from the most primitive and infant times of Christianity and consequently that this way of Government

tells it us as a Sign and Ingredient of perilous times that in the last days some great Professors of Religion would be disobedient to Parents without 2 Tim. 3. natural Affection and unthankful But in former Ages this Custom was justly accounted a good security to Religion And we finde it not onely in the Canon Vniversalis but even in Tertullian himself Habemus per benedictionem eosdem Arbitros fidei quos Sponsores salutis Tert. de Bapt. Quid necesse est Sponsores etiam periculo ingeri qui ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint Id. ibid. Inde suscepti c. Id. de Cor. milit who frequently mentions it And so doth the pretended Dionysius Areopagita and the Author of the Questions and Answers ascribed to Justin Martyr And though it be acknowledged that those Books were not written by those men yet none doubts but they are ancient Records And 't is as certain that this Custom is much elder than those Authors Plat. in vita Hygini Magd. cent 2. c. 6. whosoever they were for it is confest that it prevailed in the time of Hyginus who was Justin Martyr's Co-temporary and lived within sixty years after S. John's decease 9. And so for baptismal Interrogatories and Stipulations and Vows of renouncing the Devil and all his works c. they Tertul. Cyril Just Mart. cum multis aliis are so manifestly ancient by the joynt Consent of all the most Primitive Writers that I dare say They bear date from the Apostles times And generally learned men do conceive that St. Peter alludes to that Custom 1 Pet. 3. 21. where he calleth Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Answer or the Promise and Stipulation V. Grotium in loc of a good Conscience towards God 10. The repeating of Psalms and Hymns by turns by Minister Antiphonae and People is a very useful good course to keep peoples minds from rambling and to imprint holy things in their memories And this hath been customary in the ancient Church though as St. Basil tells us there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variety Basil Ep. 63. ad Cler. Neocaes in singing For sometimes the Minister began one verse and was seconded by the whole Congregation as is the custom still in many of our Parochial Churches and sometimes the Quire was divided into two parts which alternately answered each other from side to side as 't is usual in our Colledges and Cathedrals At the close of each Psalm or Hymn they commonly had some End versicles called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De vitâ Contempl Const lib. 2. c. 57. and in Clements Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to our Gloria Patri and these were recited by turns too Certain it is that the people were ever wont to bear their part in praising and blessing God which was one reason that Eusebius took those Therapeutae in Egypt for Christians because Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 17. among other Christian Customs they had this And if he was mistaken in his opinion yet it argues that this was a general custom among Christians in his time And so indeed St. Basil assures us that it prevailed universally in the Eastern Churches Cassiodore affirms that Flavianus and Diodorus Tripart Hist l. 5. c. 32. brought in the Alternate singing of Psalms But this certainly is a mistake for this was most usual long before their days Socrates and others fetch it as high as from the holy Martyr Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. Ignatius who was no less than an Apostolical Bishop and this Trip. Hist l. 10. c. 9. is yielded by Cassiodore himself elsewhere But though Ignatius might have introduced this custom at Antioch yet in probability 't was originally borrowed of the Jews and so continued among Christians from the beginning This is evident that Pliny writing to the Emperour Trajan in whose days St. John died saith of the Christians that they were wont early in a morning to meet together which comes near to St. Basil's account and to sing Carmen Christo a Hymn to Christ and that secum invicem by course by turns or one after another 11. As concerning the posture of the body at the receiving Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Holy Sacrament it is clear that the sitting posture was never used unless by the Arrians who denied our Saviour's Divinity All the Catholicks did receive with all imaginable Reverence and in St. Cyril's time they did it in a worshipping Cyril Catech. Myst 5. and adoring gesture the Adoration being directed to God and Christ but not to the Elements 12. 'T is customary with us especially in some places to read the second Service at the Lords Table which some are pleased to look upon as a mighty piece of Superstition though it be nothing else but an innocent usage conformable to the Practice of the most Primitive times which is still preserved not onely in the Eastern parts but in the Lutheran Churches also For as Mr. Mede hath well observed this was the place Christian Sacrifice cap. 5. Ep. 56. to Dr. Twisse alibi where the Ancients offered up all their Prayers unto God and because the Passion of Christ is commemorated and his Death represented there they thought it the most fit and proper place for Divine-Service and so were wont to call upon God at the Altar signifying hereby that they offered up their Prayers in the Name and through the Merits of their crucified Saviour For the Readers further satisfaction I shall refer him to the Observations of that learned man and onely adde That that Phrase in Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be within the Altar is a plain allusion to this Ancient and Primitive custom and signifies to joyn with the Bishop in those Ministrations which were performed and in those Prayers which were offered up at the Altar And the like Phrase we finde in Clements Constitutions Const l. 7. c. 41. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to partake of holy Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is explained afterwards to communicate in holy Ordinances In fine whosoever will give himself the trouble to search and will do us the right to speak impartially he must needs confess that those Constitutions of ours which are establisht by Law and those Rites which are preserved by Custom have had their Rise and Original from the best and most authentick Antiquity I have instanced in several particulars and a longer account might be given if that would do our business effectually But I hope what hath been already shewed will satisfie all indifferent and sober persons that our Church is free from all charge of Superstition and Novelty I would to God she were as free from danger too danger which is now threatned her not only by those who never were in her bosom but by those also to whom she like an indulgent Mother hath held