Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	call_v	church_n	congregation_n	1,735	5	9.2238	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34539	The nonconformist's plea for lay-communion with the Church of England together with a modest defence of ministerial nonconformity, and the exercise of their ministry / by Mr. John Corbet ...	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1683 (1683)	Wing C6259; ESTC R2132	20,263	32

heavy on one mans shoulders as he thought it did formerly on the Bishops here But I do not as yet discern the divine Right of Episcopacy in the state and priviledges thereof here following wherein I desire information and would gladly receive satisfaction if there be such divine Rights indeed None can be justly offended with me for examining in my own defence that Right which I am accused to have invaded do not discern that a Bishop infimi gradus I mean one that hath none under him but Parish-Ministers who are pretended to have no Episcopal governing-power I say I discern not that such a Bishop can by divine Right challenge to himself alone the Episcopal Authority over hundreds of particular Churches For every particular Church should have its proper Pastor or Bishop And particular Churches with their proper Pastors are so evidently of Divine Right that some eminently learned men in the Church of England have declared their judgment That no Form of Church-government besides the meer Pastoral Office and Church-assemblies is prescribed in the Word of God but may be various according to the various condition and occasion of several Churches Neither do I discern how it is possible for one man to do the work of a bishop towards hundreds of Churches I mean the work of a bishop infimi gradus under whom there are no subordinate Bishops or Pastors For the work of such a bishop is to oversee all the Flock to preach to them all to baptize and confirm all that are to be baptized and confirmed to administer the Lords Supper to all to bless the Congregation publickly and privataly to admonish all as their need requires to excommunicate the impenitent to absolve the penitent and that upon knowledg of their particular estate If such a Diocesan bishop saith it sufficeth that he perform all this to the Flock by others namely by the Parish-Ministers as his Curates and by other Officers his Substitutes it is answered 1. That the Pastoral Authority is a personal trust 2. It is desired that he shew his Commission from Christ the Prince of Pastors to do his work by others for I am now inquiring what is of divine and not of humane Right 3. None but a bishop can do the proper work of a bishop But if it be said That the Parochial Congregations are not Churches but only parts of the Diocess which is the lowest particular Church I desire proof from Scripture That such Congregations as our Parishes having their proper Presbyter or Presbyters invested with the power of the keys are not particular Churches properly so called The reason of my desire of this proof is because the Scripture is a perfect Rule for the Essential constitution of Churches tho accidents there unto belonging may be regulated by humane prudence 2. It is most evident in Scripture that a particular Congregation of Christians having their proper Pastor or Pastors Presbyter or Presbyters are Churches properly so called And a Parochial Minister I conceive to be a Pastor or Elder according to the Scripture Moreover if a Diocess containing a hundred two hundred five hundred or a thousand Parishes as somewhere it doth do constitute but one particular Church and those particular Parishes be not properly to be accounted Churches but only so many parts of that one Diocesan Church why may not ten thousand yea ten times ten thousand Parishes be likewise accounted but one particular Church and brought under one man as sole Bishop or Pastor thereof In all this I have not argued against the right of an Arch-Bishop or Overseer of other Bishops such as Titus must needs be if he were Bishop of Cr●te where Bishops or Elders were to be ordained in every City If either Scripture or Prudence guided by Scripture be for such an office I oppose it not and nothing here spoken makes against it If our Diocesan Bishops be in very deed Arch-Bishops or OOverseers of inferior Bishops to wit Parish-Ministers I do not here argue against it but only say that in their Archiepiscopal Diocess or Province they cannot exercise their authority any otherwise than according to the rules of Gods word for the edification and peace of the Church and that they cannot discharge the inferior Bishops from their obligation to Christ whose immediate Ministers and Stewards they are and to whom they are immediately accountable Moreover I do not discern that any Bishop can by divine right so challenge or claim such a circuit of ground for his Diocess as for example the County of Sussex as that thereupon he can by the said right prohibit all other Pastors whatsoever to do the work of the Ministry in any case without his licence within such a circuit of ground or that such a measure of ground is related to his Episcopal office as a propriety for government Ecclesiastical like as certain territories and dominions are as a propriety in reference to Civil government related to the temporal Soveraingty of a Prince The partition of one Church from another by local bounds is not of divine institution but of humane prudence from the convenience of the thing I say convenience not absolute necessity And the state of things may be such as to compel to vary from it in some particulars It is supposed by learned men that in the Apostles times there were several Churches at Rome under their several Bishops or Pastors in the same local bounds as one of the Circumcision and another of the Uncircumcision And if it were not so de facto I think few will deny but that it lawfully might have been so If upon the aforesaid diversity of condition in the persons namely as being of different nations and languages there may be several Churches under several Bishops or Pastors within the same local bounds why not also upon other diversity of condition which may render them as uncapable of being of the same particular Church as if they were of divers nations One instance may be an unmovable diversity of persuasions about points of Religion As for example Why may not Lutherans and Calvinists of the same nation town or village have their several Churches under their several Pastors and live in peace Nothing could hinder the said peace but want of Christian Humility and Charity And consequently why among us may not Christians that have invincible diversity of persuasions in matters of Church Government live peaceably within the same precincts in their several Churches Besides all this if the local bounds assigned for one mans immediate Pastoral charge be so vast and the multitude of Souls therein be so great as to render it impossible for any one man to fulfil that charge towards them can it be judged an usurpation against dwine right if another Pastor without license from him should perform ministerial service within those bounds Likewise let it be 〈…〉 ered what may or may not be done in any circuit of gro 〈…〉 ●here the inhabitants are destitute of competent provision