Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	ephesus_n	3,999	5	11.0253	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26854	Richard Baxter his account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the causes of his being forbidden by the Bishop of Worcester to preach within his diocess with the Bishop of Worcester's letter in answer thereunto : and some short animadversions upon the said bishops letter.; Account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the causes of his being forbidden by the Bishop of Worcester to preach within his diocess	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Letter to a friend for vindication of himself from Mr. Baxter's calumny.	1662 (1662)	Wing B1179; ESTC R1412	40,242	54

averre that He could not otherwise uphold and maintain it than by preserving the Undue and as some think Antichristian Dignity and Prelation of His inferiour Officers 3. Bishops are so little useful to support the Regal Dignity which is founded upon a distinct Basis of its own that upon enquiry it will be found how none have been greater Enemies to the True and Undoubted Soveraignty of Princes than some Bishops themselves For by their Officious and scarce warrantable intermedling in Civil Affairs by their Absurd and Insignificant distinguishing between Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes of which last they have alwayes made themselves sole Judges they mangle the Kings Authority and as to Church-matters which may be extended as far as they please they leave the King nothing of Supremacy but the Name The Pope of Rome therefore who is the great Father of all such Bishops hath improved this Notion and Distinction so far that in ordine ad spiritualia he hath laboured to subject all Civil Empires unto his sole Jurisdiction So that if the Bishop of Worcester's Rule hold good of Crimine ab uno Disce omnes i. e. That all men who are of a Party may be judged of by the miscarriages of one then I must leave it to You to judge what all those Bishops that are of the Bishop of Worcester's complexion do really drive at by the fatal example of that one Bishops Usurpation For Secondly That Assertion That the Bishop of Worcester and consequently every other Bishop is the sole Pastor of all the Congregations in his Diocesse if it be at all defensible I am sure can be defended only by those Arguments which are commonly alledged to maintain the Popes Supremacy over all Churches whatever For since a Bishop can no otherwise discharge his duty herein than by providing Substitutes what hinders but the Bishop of Rome may as well oversee a million of Churches as the Bishop of Worcester five hundred Since if Deputation be lawful more or less compass and circuit of ground doth not at all alter the case I forbear to urge how contrary this Practise is to the Doctrine of the Apostles both Paul and Peter I hope the Bishop will not take it ill that I do not call them Saints for these Holy men do not need any stile of Honour out of the Popes Kalender When Paul had sent for the Elders of the Church at Ephesus he bids them to feed the Church of God over which not he himself by his sole Authority as Bishop of the Diocesse but the Spirit of God had made them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Overseers or to use the proper stile Bishops And Peter commands his Fellow-Elders for so doth that Apostle condescend to call himself to feed the Flock which was among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseeing or Acting the Bishops not like the Bishop of Worcester as Lording it over Gods Heritage but as Patterns of the Flock From which places we learn not only that those two so much controverted Names of Bishop and Presbyter are without distinction ascribed to the same Persons but likewise that whoever feed the Flock are under Christ whom the Apostle there stiles the Chief-Shepherd the next and immediate Pastors of the Flock And to extend the Pastoral Power beyond the actual care of Feeding is a Notion altogether unscriptural and likewise leaves us no bounds where to fix till we come to center upon some one Universal Pastor who may claim this Power over the whole World by the same parity of reason that a Bishop doth over one Diocesse Thirdly It seems to be a Light and to say no more unseemly trifling with sacred Scripture to affirm that those words of our Saviour concerning such as come not in by the Door and therefore are Thieves and Robbers ought to be understood of such Ministers as preach to Congregations without the Bishops License Which thing the Bishop in great Heat and Earnestnesse as if he had done very well in it tells us more than once that it was the Principal reason why he silenced Mr. Baxter Truly if this practise be justifiable and those who design themselves to preach the Gospel must besides their Ordination procure a License from a Bishop to do that which a Woe is denounced against if they offer to omit Then 1. I see not what Ordination signifies since the Power that then is given no Authority from Man can take away any more than dissolve the Contract of a Marriage much less impeach and hinder the free use of it except for Moral and notoriously vicious Misdemeanours 2. For one Minister of the Gospel for certainly a Bishop is no more to Silence another and that for no better Reason than because his Fellow-Minister is desirous to preach the Gospel without a new License this is an abuse of Dominion which as our Saviour doth no where countenance so the first Ages of the Church were altogether unacquainted with For the Bishops instance of our Saviours putting to silence the Scribes and Pharisees is both Impertinent and False because our Saviour did only silence them by Argument which the Bishop may do when ever he is able but what is that to an Authoritative and Imperious commanding men to be Silent Besides even then when our Saviour was most strict in pronouncing Woes against the Pharisees in that very Chapter he is so far from forbidding the Pharisees to preach that he commands his Disciples both to Hear and to Obey their Doctrine So that since the Bishop will needs have the Presbyterians to be Pharisees let him but allow them the same Liberty of Teaching the People as our Saviour did the other and I believe they will not at least were I a Presbyterian I should not envy his Lordship either his Title or Maintenance how undue and unmeri●●ed soever they ●●oth be And though the Bishop is pleased to say that the Presbyterians preach nothing but Sedition and Treason which is most false as being directly contrary to their declared Principles yet the Pharisees taught something worse and that was Blasphemy Yet our Saviour who sure had more power and withall more care of his Church than the Bishop of Worcester did not go about by Force to prohibit them I wish therefore th●● this bishop and the rest of his Brethren if any are Cholerick and Testy enough to be of his mind would consider that as by silencing their Fellow-Ministers for such frivolous and slight pretences they usurp a Power which Christ never gave so at the last day he will not thank them for the Exercise of it Fourthly How consistent with the Civil Peace for as to Christian Charity the whole thing is but a Letter of defiance against it the Bishops Distinction is about the Act of Indempnity and the so much forgotten Act of Oblivion I hope His Majesty and the Parliament will in due time consider For he is so hardy as to tell us That the

King by it only pardoned the corporal Punishment but the Church had not nor ought not to forgive the Scandal till honourable amends were made her by Confession and Recantation Where by speaking of the Church as distinct from the State I mean in point of Coercive Jurisdiction the Bishop would make us believe that after His Majesty and the Parliament have forgiven men their Civil Crimes there is still another Power which he calls the Church unto which they are still accountable even so far as to make a Publick Recantation Here I wish the Bishop would have spoken out of the Clouds and plainly told us what he meant by the Church For i●● it b●● a Congregation of the Faithful met together for the Worship of God as t●● Defin●●ion of Scripture and of the Church of England is in the 39. Arti●●les this will not at all advantage him since such a Church hath no Coercive or Imposing Power But if he means the Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical State by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. There can be nothing more False or more dishonourable unto our Civil Government than to affirm that it lies in their power not only to Punish but likewise to exact a Recantation for those Faults which the King and Parliament have not only pardoned but under severe Penalties commanded should never more be remembred And therefore I doubt not but they will resent this Malicious and Ill-grounded Fancy And since the Bishop is so over-zealous for the very Letter of the Law when it imposes Ceremonies give me leave a little to wonder that one of his Profession and Place in the Church should so unchristianly go against it when it enjoyns Moderation and Forgiveness as to Civil Injuries Such as he who make the Law instead of being a Buckler to protect Converts a Sword only to cut off all such as were once Offenders labour what they can to make men Desperate and thereby render the Peace of the Nation and in that the prosperity and Welfare of His Majesty very Insecure and Hazardous For what can more enrage Men to take Wild and Forbidden Courses than to see even Preachers of the Gospel strive to widen their Wounds and contrary to their own former Professions to pull off that Plaister which the Wisdom of our State Physicians had provided to heal our Distempers Fifthly It is Bold and Impious I know not how to express it more mildly what he affirms that If to command an Act which by accident may prove an occasion of sin be sinful then God himself cannot command any thing For though as I said before I will by no means own that Assertion yet a thing which by accident may become sinful may be Unlawful in another to command for want of sufficient Authority whereas Gods Soveraign power doth without dispute or controversy make all his Commands to be just and therefore his Name ought not to be mentioned in our trivial disputes because every such vain Use of it is nothing but a diminution and lessening of his Greatness Sixthly That an Offence to which a disproportionable Penalty is annexed is not to be measured by the Quality of the Act considered in it self but by the mischievous consequences it may produce wh●●ther this ought to hold good in Civil Laws becomes neither the Bishop nor me to dispute but in Divinity nothing can be more False and Dangerous For to impose in the Worship of God as necessary circumstances of it things confessedly trivial and needless and upon the forbearance of them to debar any from the benefits first of Christian and then of Civil Communion is a thing which hath not the least pretence of Scripture or Primitive practice to justifie it For our Saviour tells us That whoever were not against him were for him and the Apostle bids us to receive our weak Brother and not to judge much less to burden his Conscience Unto which Sacred Canon nothing can be more directly contrary than what the Bishop most Incompassionately tells us That the Laws do well to punish even with non-admission to the Sacrament such as will not or perhaps dare not kneel And the Reason he gives is equally Apocrypha Because saith he it becomes not the Law-givers to endanger the Churches peace for their sake As if first It did not much more become all Law-givers in the things of God to observe the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love and Liberty Secondly As if the Churches peace would not be much more endangered by the pressing of things doubtful than by the forbearance of them For since by the enforcing of such things as God hath no where commanded our Christian liberty is entringed from hence it follows that if we ought not yet we lawfully may refuse to submit unto such Impositions as our Saviour did in not washing his hands before Meat and the Apostle Paul in the case of Circumcision Seventhly As for the chain of Consequences which the Bishop links and ties together As that from Diversity in external Rites ariseth Dislike from Dislike Enmity from Enmity Opposition thence Schism in the Church and Sedition in the State For proof of which he doth very virulently instance in our Unhappy times To prevent which he tells us That the State cannot be safe without the Church nor the Church without the Unity nor Unity without Uniformity nor Uniformity without a strict and rigorous Imposition To all this I answer that it is a meer Rope of Sand and the Parts of his Chain do as little harg together as Sampsons Foxes did before they were tied by the Tails which course the Bishop hath imitated not forgetting to put in even the Firebrand it self to make up the comparison For 1. Nothing is more clear than that there hath been nay ought to be Diversity in external Forms without any Dislike at all as to the Person of another For the Apostles that preached to the Circumcision gave the right hand of Fellowship unto the Apostles of the Gentiles although their Outward Rites in publick Worship were far more different than those which by any of the most distant perswasions are now practised in England 2. The State may be preserved without the least reference to the Church unless it turns Persecuter of it as is evident in those 300 years before Constantines time in which there was no Church at all legally countenanced and for some scores of years after both the Christians and Gentiles were equally advanced and favoured 3. Unity I mean such as Christ came to establish which is an Unity in heart and spirit doth not in the least depend upon Uniformity but upon Charity i. e. a Christian and a Candid forbearance of one another in things Circumstantial when we agree in the Essentials of Worship which is a thing that meer Civility would teach though Religion were silent in it And whereas the Bishop thinks he hath got some advantage by reviving the memory of our late Civil Wars which were he either

to urge Christs example against himself for as we conform our selves to the Churches order and custome of our times in receiving the Communion otherwise in point of gesture then perhaps it was received at the first institution so Christ and his Apostles conforming themselves to the order and practise of the Church of their times did celebrate the Passeover otherwise then according to the first Institution it was to be celebrated in point of gesture also thereby intending to teach us that as long as the Essentials of Doctrine and Worship which are unalteraable are preserved we are not to separate from the Church or quarrel with our Superiours if those things that are in their own nature alterable be not alwaies and in all places just the same that they were at first because there may be very just cause for the alteration of them and whether there be such a cause or no in this and the like particulars it is the Church that is to be the Judge So that there is nothing that can be collected either from the Canons of the Councels or from the practise of the Primitive Church no nor from Christs own example that can prove Kneeling at the Sacrament to be a sin neither doth Mr. Baxter himself believe it to be sinful for if he did he would not say as he does Pag. 4. 11. of his five Disputations that he himself would kneel rather then disturb the Peace of the Church or be deprived of its Communion In which words he confesseth First that Kneeling at the Sacrament is not sinful or unlawful Secondly that not to Kneel when it is imposed is to disturb the Peace of the Church and Thirdly that the imposing of it upon penalty of being deprived of the Communion is an effectual means to make those that otherwise would not kneel to conform to it and consequently that the imposing of it upon such a penalty is prudent and rational and whatsoever is prudent and rational cannot be unlawful so that not only the Act of Kneeling it self but the imposition of it by lawful Authority must needs be lawful Neither indeed would the People scruple at the imposition if they had not been taught that the thing it self were unlawful or if Mr. Baxter would yet teach them to believe what he himself believes namely that it is lawful which with what conscience he can refuse to do I know not for sure he is obliged to teach them obedience not to Divine Authority only but to humane Authority also in all lawful things and not to let them go on in such an erroneous opinion as will disturb the Peace and deprive them of the Communion of the Church and consequently make them sin against God and Man and their own Souls Of which sin of theirs he must needs be a partaker in a great measure if he do not perswade them from it seeing as he himself saith Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet And what Power he hath to lead or mislead those kind of men their venturing to kill and be killed in a most unrighteous quarrel upon his perswasion hath more then enough demonstrated during the time of the late troubles unlesse he will say that he hath conjured up a Spirit that he cannot lay Howsoever by how much the more faulty he hath been in misleading them heretofore by so much the more zealous he should be to reduce them into the right way hereafter which if he and the rest of his Brethren can do as I am confident they can if they wil they wil make some amends for the mischief they have done and then there will be no fear or danger of Ministers being Ejected for their tenderness towards the People nor of the Ejecting of any of the People from the communion of the Church for not conforming themselves to the Orders and Commands of it consequently there will be no Schisms or Divisions amongst us when we shall all worship the same God the same way But if they will not do this which by all obligations Humane and Divine they are bound to do for my part I know no better way for undeceiving reducing of the People then by removing such Ministers and then we shall see when the blowing of those boisterous winds ceaseth whether the waves will not be still or no In the mean time I hope the removing of erroneous and seditious will not necessitate the introducing of ignorant and scandalous Ministers though Mr. Baxter ought to remember that as there is no sin more heinous then Rebellion so no teacher ought to be more scandalous I am sure there is none more dangerous then a teacher of Rebellion And now to use Mr. Baxters own words I think there is no man to be found on earth that hath the ordinary reason of a Man but will confess That it is indeed destructive of all Government and Legislative power to Assert as Mr. Baxter did Assert the command of a thing in it self lawful by lawful Authority under no unjust punishment with no evil circumstance which the Commander can foresee or ought to provide against for all these pre-cautions were expresly put in the proposition which Mr. Baxter denied as a sinful Command for a●● other reason but because the Act Commanded may be by Accident a sin Let Mr. Baxter then know and if he have ingenuity enough confess that the words I spoke as to this particular were words of truth and words of charity also as being intended and spoken to no other end but to undeceive that People who by having his person too much in admiration as if he could neither deceive nor be deceived had been so long and so dangerously mislead by him so that it was not I that defamed him then but it is he that hath defamed me now Neither could I expect lesse from the boldnesse of this man and that party who have had the confidence publickly to own the obligation of the Covenant even since it hath been condemn'd to be burnt by the Parliament And truly I see no reason why all those Books and Sermons which have been Preach'd and Printed in defence of the Covenant or to maintain the same or worse principles of Sedition then are in the Covenant should not be burnt also Nay I dare be bold to say that if the Authors of such Books and Sermons were not still of the same opinions and if they be God deliver us from such Preachers if they were not still I say of the same opinions but did truly repent of them and were heartily sorry for the horrible mischief they have done by them they would with those converted Exorcists Act. 16. 19. bring all those Conjuring Books of theirs togethers and to save the Hang-man a labour would publickly burn them all with their own hands that so though by the burning of their works they may perhaps suffer some losse in point of reputation with some of their Disciples yet they themselves may be