Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	scripture_n	word_n	5,566	5	3.9070	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64644	Episcopal and Presbyterial government conjoyned proposed as an expedient for the compremising of the differences, and preventing of those troubles about the matter of Church-Government / written in the late times by ... Ja. Usher ...	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.	1679 (1679)	Wing U175; ESTC R11050	8,086	14

the Company of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not onely in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also in the administration of the Discipline of Christ for further proof whereof we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his Apology for Christians In the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure For judgment is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the judgment which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Communion of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy Fellowship The Presidents that bear Rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by reward but by a good report who were no other as he himself elsewhere intimateth but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chief President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place Summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the Dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the received form of gathering together the Presbyters of what persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wisheth him to read his letters to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him the presence of the Clergy being thought to be so requisite in matters of Episcopal audience that in the fourth Councel of Carthage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of his Clergy and that otherwise the Bishops sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by the presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Cannons of Egbert who was Arch-Bishop of Tork in the Saxons times and afterwards into the Body of the Canon Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterial government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that right proceedeth only from the custom now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this Hindrance may be well removed and how easily this ancient form of government by the united Suffrages of the Clergy might be revived again and with what little shew of alteration the Synodical conventions of the Pastors of every Parish might be accorded with the presidency of the Bishops of each Diocess and Province the indifferent Reader may quickly perceive by the perusal of the ensuing Propositions I. In every Parish the Rector or incumbent Pastor together with the Churchwardens and Sidesmen may every week take notice of such as live scandalously in that Congregation who are to receive such several admonitions and reproofs as the quality of their offence shall deserve and if by this means they cannot be reclaimed they may be presented unto the next monthly Synod and in the mean time debarred by the Pastor from access to the Lords Table II. Whereas by a Statute in the 26th year of King Henry the eight revived in the first of Queen Elizabeth Suffiagans are appointed to be erected in twenty six several places of this Kingdom the number of them might very well be conformed unto the number of the several rural Deanries into which every Diocess is subdivided which being done the Suffragan supplying the place of those who in the ancient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every month assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Incumbent Pastors within the Precinct and according to the Major part of their voices conclude all matters that should be brought into debate before them To this Synod the Rector and Church-Wardens might present such impenitent persons as by admonition and suspension from the Sacrament would not be reformed who if they should still remain contumacious and incorrigible the sentence of Excommunication might be decreed against them by the Synod and accordingly be executed in the Parish where they lived Hitherto also all things that concerned the Parochial Ministers might be referred whether they did touch their Doctrine or their Conversation as also the censure of all new Opinions Heresies or Schisms which did arise within that Circuit with liberty of Appeal if need so require unto the Diocesan Synod III. The Diocesan Synod might be held once or twice in the year as it should be thought most convenient Therein all the Suffragans and the rest of the Rectors or Incumbent Pastors or a certain select number of every Deanry within that Diocess might meet with whose consent or the Major part of them all things might be concluded by the Bishop or Superintendent call him whither you will or in his absence by one of the Suffragans whom he shall depute in his stead to be Moderator of that Assembly Here all matters of greater moment might be taken into consideration and the Orders of the Monthly Synods revised and if need be Reformed And if here also any matters of difficulty could not receive a full determination it might be referred to the next Provincial or National Synod IV. The Provincial Synod might consist of all the Bishops and Suffragans and such other of the Clergy as should be elected out of every Diocess within the Province The Primate of either Province might be Moderator of this meeting or in his room some one of the Bishops appointed by him and all matters be ordered therein by common consent as in the former Assembly This Synod might be held every third year and if the Parliament do then sit according to the Act for a Triennial Parliament both the Primates and Provincial Synods of the Land might joyn together and make up a National Counsel Wherein all Appeals from inferior Synods might be received all their Acts examined and all Ecclesiastical constitutions which concern the state of the Church of the whole Nation established FINIS THe Form of Government here proposed is not in any point repugnant to the Scripture and that the Suffragans mentioned in the second Proposition may lawfully use the Power both of Jurisdiction and Ordination according to the Word of God and the Practise of the Ancient Church Luke 9. 55. Europae speculum 172. Votum pro pace 62. Disc. tending to Eccles. Peace pag. 2. 3. Pref. to the power of the Keyes Gildas Salv. 338. Act. 26. 28. pag. 144. pag. 173. Rom. 11. 33. Char. 1. large declar 403. 1 King 19. 11. 12. Gen. 3. 8. Joh. 18. 14. Num. 14. 2. v. 28. Juven Sat. 10. Joh. 13. 35. Rev. 12. 14. 2 Esdr. 4. 30. Eccles. 10. 24. Prov. 1. 7. Gen. 13. 8. Act. 27. 24. a The form of Ordaining of Ministers b Ibid. ex Act. 20. 17 28. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so taken in Mat. 2. 6. and Apoc. 12. 5. 19. 15. c Rev. 2. 1. d 1 Tim. 4. 14. e Ibidem etiam exhortationes castigationes censura divina nam judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri judicii praeindicium est si quis ita deliquirit ut à communicatione orationis conventus omnis sancti commercii relege●ur praesident probars quique seniores honorem istum non pretiosed Testimonio adepti Tertul. Apologet. cap. 39. f Nec de aliorum manibus quampraesidentium sumimus Id. de corona militis cap. 3. g Dandiquidem Baptismi habet jus summus sacerdos qui est Episcopus dehinc Presbyteri Diaconi Id. de Bapt. cap. 17. h Omni actu ad me perlato placuit contrahi Presbyterium Cornel apud Cypr. ep 46. i Florentissimo illic clero te cum praesidenti Cyp. ep 55. ad Cornel. k Ut Episcopus nullus causam audiat absque praesentia Clericorum suorum alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum praesenti â confirmetur Conc. Car. thag cap. 23. l Excirption Egberti cap 43. m 15 q. 7. cap. Nullus The Parochial government answerable to the Church Session in Scotland The Presbyterial monthly Synods answer to the Scottish Presbyteries or Ecclesiastical meetings Diocesan Synods answerable to the Provincial Synods in Scotland The Provincial and National Synodanswerable to the General Assembly in Scotland