Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	act_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	3,131	5	10.0517	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34016	A letter with animadversions upon the animadverter on the Bishop of Worcesters letter by J.C. ...	Collop, John.	1661 (1661)	Wing C5393; ESTC R21084	8,081	16

the Kings power is that the Bishops are good Subjects and good Christians or that they have a preheminence in power that there may not be as many Schisms as Priests Sure the Kings interest stands not with the Devils and a Tyrants to divide by Sects least all may unite against Him but to unite all that they may agree in the service of God and of him who is Gods Vicegerent Thirdly Bishops are little useful to support the Regal Dignity being the greatest enemies to Soveraignty intermedling in Civil affairs and mangling the Church Authority in Church matters leaving the King nothing of Supremacy Had not this trifler been lost as much to good Books as Brains he might have learned of the most eminent B. Saunderson That derived power is so far from destroying the original from whence it is derived as it rather confirmeth and establisheth it The farther it is extended so it be regular the more it serveth to illustrate the honor of the original since the efficient cause is best known by the greatness of the effect For Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale And did not the valor of this Champion proceed only from his ignorance when Protestant Bishops only profess maintain and submit to Regal Supremacy he could not thus whiffle to no greater purpose then the calling of his Brains into question Page 3. The Bishop cannot be Pastor of all the Congregations in his Diocess For since a Bishop cannot otherwise discharge his duty then by Substitutes the Bishop of Rome may as well oversee a Million of Churches as the Bishop of Worcester Five hundred Most Logical and profound A Steward who oversees laborers may with a like faculty employ encourage and take account of five thousand as five He forbears to urge the contrary practise of Paul and Peter hopes the Bishop not angry he calls them not Saints who need no honor from the Popes Calendar The Saintship sure belongs to Peters not St. Peter He need not believe the Scripture since the Pope calls it the Word of God or there was a Saviour he had Apostles and those were Bishops since it comes but from tradition and that from the Pope and who knows how far the Bishop of Rome hath put in his foot into the Pot Page 4. Here this Ridiculum caput tortures in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseers or Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overseeing or acting like Bishops not like the Bishop of Worcester Lording over Gods heritage but as patterns to the flock Strange Overseers who have no power over deceitful workers He takes no notice of St. Pauls course like the Bishops which he took with Alexander the Copersmith with Demas Philelus and Hymeneus does only tanquam Canis ad Nilum ●ap and away But sure they need not fear Crocodiles who are what we call Crocodiles the worst of Dissemblers The next trouble is Who come in by the wrong door are called Thieves and Robbers He who would be angry with Christ Ignatius would scarce please with a who doth any thing without the Bishops Licence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serves the Devil nor St. Cyprian with his Unum scire debes siquis cum Episcopo non sit in Ecclesiâ non esse That he who is not with the Bishop is not in the Church The Church maintaining the Ordinations of Presbyters for meer nullities in themselves cannot own their Ordinations without renouncing the Catholick Church Omnis Ecclesia appellata est virgo as St. Austin He who commits a rape by entring by force may be intituled to punishment not matrimony though this fumivendulus A. would have Presbyterian Ordination as little to be impeached as marriage Oh but Christ silenced the Scribes and Pharisees with Arguments only which the Bishop can never do In this only the Mythologist is to be believed We have an honest Fathers word for it St. Austine with a quid promobis exercitatissime Scripturarum si quid defenderis negetur si quid negaveris defendetur Tit contra nihil promoves nisi vocem perdis in declamatione nisi bilem suscitas de blasphematicis All the learning of this most Reverend Prelate gains nothing beside the anger of blasphemous Schismaticks That the Bishops says Presbyterians preach sedition and treason is most false and directly contrary to their declared principles It would be worth the inquiry whether this Declaration was ever in England or Scotland or Calvin made it at the Expulsion of the lawful Prince the Bishop of Geneva The Pharisees taught blasphemy yet our Saviour like the Bishop did not go about to prohibit them by force This Sciamachist will forget both our Saviours power and the Kings and that he called Bishops the Kings subordinate Ministers and rarely infers Sedition Treason and Blasphemy must be all preached and tolerated or else the Bishops usurpe a power Christ never gave and at the last day as our Grand Polemick Christ will not thank them for the exercise of it He seems much concerned in the Bishops distinction about the Act of Indempnity and Act of Oblivion that the King by it only pardoned the corporal punishment but the Church had not nor ought not to forgive the scandal till honorable amends were made her by Confession and Recantation It is evident as the incomparable Thorndike observes that the whole Church was governed by Bishops and that not against Gods Law for then there could have remained no Church and therefore the pretence of Governing the Church by Presbyters is a breach of unitie unless a part may give law to the whole which who do so are by so doing Schismaticks then how should that communion be counted a Church which receive Schismaticks as Schismaticks viz. without renouncing positions destructive to faith obligations for their future not infringing the unity of the Church St. Austine to the Donatists objections that the Church received their Apostates without rebaptizing them could have had no answer had he not had this That the Church received them not as Donatists but converted from Donatists and not refusing to make a profession I wish Mr. B. ejusdem farinae sodales these Donatists for so they were pleased to call themselves Gifted persons would make such professions or else what assurance can be given a Church that when they preach they open not their mouths only to widen our differences Page 8. As for the Chain of Consequences which the Bishop links and ties together as from diversitie in external Rites ariseth dislike from dislike enmity from enmity opposition then Schism in the Church and Sedition in the State the Church cannot be safe without unitie nor unitie without uniformity nor uniformity without a rigorus imposition is a Rope of sand and the parts of the Chain as little hang together as Sampsons Foxes before they were tyed together by the tayls which course the Bishop doth imitate not forgetting to put the Firebrand into the comparison Mentiris Bellarmine Learnedly and Politickly