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
A62901	A word of information to them that need it briefly opening some most weighty passages of God dispensations among the sons of men, from the beginning, and insisting a little upon the state and condition of the nations, wherein they now stand, and particularly of England : for this end, that men may remember themselves, and turn unto the Lord, and seek to be delivered from the mysteries of iniquity, to walk with God in fellowship and communion : to which (as pertinent hereunto) is annexed, An addition concerning Lord-Bishops, and Common-prayer-book : with a tender admonition to those called priests, or ministers : and also, a loving exhortation to those that have separated from their superstitions / by W.T.	Tomlinson, William.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1854; ESTC R16928	33,341	46

them in minde after what manner he had been among them at all seasons serving the Lord in all humility of minde c. And so sets his own Holy Conversation in which he had lived among them as an Example fresh before their eyes to have it in remembrance and tells them that they should see his face no more And so exhorts them saying Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you OVERSEERS to feed the Church of Christ which he hath purchased with his own blood That Word that may yet keep the thing a little dark to you is the word OVERSEERS which should be translated BISHOPS if that word be to be used at all in Scripture For its the same here which is in other places of Scripture where you read the word Bishop namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 EPISCOPOS Bishops And why it should be translated OVERSEERS here and BISHOPS in other places I know not except to keep the people in ignorance For translare it Bishops here and then too great a light might they think would be let in to the people to fee what ones the Bishops formerly were For here the people might see There were many of them in one Tongregation or at least more then one here in this Congregation at Ephesus which was but a City and the Flock or Congregation in which the Holy Ghost set them Bishops was but a Company of people gathered out from the rest of that City as you may read in the 19. Ch. where you may see the very beginning of this Church And yet was there severall Bishops in that Company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to your selves saith the Apostle and to all the flock in which the holy Ghost hath set you Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Church of God or in plain English to feed the call'd out Flock of God which he hath obtained by his own blood For so was the Church It was a Flock call'd out from among the World and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds So then in this Church at Ephesus which was but one Company or Flock lately gathered out of the world In this one Flock were set Bishops more then one and there they were set to feed them and watch over them which were therefore call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Watchers over which is here translated OVERSEERS but in other places of Scripture its translated BISHOPS Now if you will have the word OVERSEERS here used as it is in the Translation then do but use the same word in all other places of Scripture where you find the word Bishop as it is the same in the Greek which you call the originall and then not so much as the Word BISHOP would be found in the Scriptures Or if you had rather retain the word Bishop then use it in this place namely Act. 20.28 as well as in other Places And then you may plainly see that they were no Lords but were Pastors and Feeders of the Flock and severall of them were set in this one Congregation at Ephesus not as Strangers meeting there for a season but set in it by the Holy Ghost to feed them and have a care over them to keep them walking in the simplicity of the Truth and pure Life of Righteousnesse and hence from their Vigilancy over them were they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Watchers over or Overseers And this is that which is called Bishop in our English Translation of Scripture Or if we look upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop as taking its rise from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are soon put together then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying in among over before and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Meta ad quam Sagittarii collimant A Mark to have in ones eye to aim at then I say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop imports as much as A Mark or example set before one to have in ones eye one eminent and worthy to be followed But I stick not upon curious Derivation of Words whencesoever the Word is derived yet the thing understood by that Word contains that in it And thus CHRIST the alone Arch-Bishop * The word Arch-Bishop stgnifies Chief-Bishop and its all one with Chief-Shepheard and is proper to Christ alone Therefore the Apostles gave it only to him calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Chief-shepheard 1 Pet. 5.4 And Christ Jesus absolutely forbade this preheminence to all his Disciples it being proper only to himself So that he that usurps the Title of Arch-Bishop or Chief-Bishop to himself is a Robber of Christs honour and stands in direct Rebellion against him in that thing who said It shall not be so among you But whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant Matth. 20.16 17. was a Mark or Example to aim at above all Examples Learn of me saith he for I am meek and lowly in heart And next unto him the Holy Apostles propounded their own innocent unblamable Conversation as an Example or Mark to look at and follow Follow us saith the Apostle for our Conversation is in Heaven Phil. 3.17 20. And they required this still of all others who were received as Bishops among the Saints that they should be men without blame A Bishop saith he must be blamelesse 1 Tim. 3.2 That so they might be as living Examples before the rest Not Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock 1 Pet. 5.3 And so Paul bids Timothy be an Example to the Flock 1 Tim. 4.12 And thus they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leaders or Captains by example and by going before the rest in a Holy Life not by a Lordly Power for that was excluded plainly and forbidden both by Christ and by his Apostles but I say by Example And therefore they were to be unblameable men or else they were not to be received as Bishops because they could not be Ensamples to the Flock if their Life was blamable Now such as these who walked before the Flock in a Holy Life feeding them with the Word of Truth and leading them in the same Steps by their Example these were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ductores Leaders which is translated Rulers Heb. 13.7.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Remember them that have he Rule over you and Vers 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you which Expressions they that are out of the feeling of the Life of Truth are ready to apply to the upholding of an Antichristian Power But take but the words together and compare spiritual things with spiritual and you will see who they were the Apostle speaks of when he names those that have the rule over the flock They were such Leaders of the Flock by their unblameable Example and pure Faith Minde his Words Ver. 7. Remember saith he your Leaders for so the VVords

Church to be called and counted Seducers by a violent Generation for so were the Saints accounted in the Primitive times by a like Generation as you are And whereas some may say It s but the rude Rable that use violence I answer It s manifestly proved by their Actions that not only they but their Teachers also are guilty of the same violence partly by stirring up the Rude People and encouraging them thereunto and partly also by exercising it with their own hands as some of them have done and partly also by unjust proceedings through Covetousnesse and Desire of filthy Lucre mingled with a wrathfull raging implacable cruel unjust and unmercifull Spirit having spoiled Families making a prey of their Goods Judg in your selves Is this like the Saints in the Primitive Times or like the World Is this like the Sheep or like the Wolves that devour Again your principal men in many of your Congregations have had a deep hand in these Actions of Violence even your JUSTICES and other OFFICERS among you who have sometimes encouraged the Rude Rabble in their Violence against the Innocent and oftentimes even themselves buffetted and abused and whipped and stocked and thrust out from among them those that harmed them not yea often have sent them to Prison and there most cruelly entreated them during their pleasure and that without any just crime or breach of any of their Lawes many times even thus have they dealt to such as have wronged no man but only sought to informe you of your dangerous state in which you stand as enemies to God and his Truth and wayes wading in Superstitious Inventions which will not profit you For this thing have you thus abused them and you are all guilty from top to toe from highest to lowest who have consented in your hearts to the violence done So see your state where you stand See by your Antipathy to such as fear the Lord and by your Agreement with the world where you are You are yet even of the world though you be counted a Church You have the Name but not the Thing You have not the Spirit and Life of the Saints And so we have good reason to separate from you and to come out from amongst you as we are commanded by the Lord 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Revel 18.4 For your Comparison holds better with the Synagogues of the Jews than with the Churches of Christ and yet you fall short of them also In them there was Haling Pulling Beating Thrusting forth Abusing using Violence as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles And so here is your pattern even the Synagogues of the Jews where the Servants of the Lord were abused for holding forth the Truth But herein you excel those Synagogues in Wickedness and fall short of them in Moderation In that they gave liberty to men to speak among them and to reason and dispute among them as you may read Act. 13.14 15. and Act. 17.1 2. and in many other places in that Book Where you may read what liberty they gave unto the Apostles and Saints in those times though they came with a new Doctrine to them which overturned all their former state of a Church yet did they not abuse or molest them until they heard Doctrine delivered which they accounted dangerous and erroneous But you with open mouth and violence are ready to swallow men up before they can well speak a sentence out to be understood yea though you your selves cannot deny the truth of that which is spoken So that you fall far short of the Jews Synagogues in moderation and sobriety even short of those whom you your selves count Persecuters of the true Church How should you then be the true Church Your Violence breaks out before you understand wherefore so did not theirs So you are worse than they And this is your state and condition So see your selves herein and see your Ministers what they are that encourage you herein The Old World which was destroyed by water and Sodom and Gomorrah which were destroyed by fire are revived in your Streets and Assemblies yea in your solemn Assemblies in the point of Violence which was a principal thing topping up all their wickedness for which they were destroyed The Old World was full of Violence Gen. 6.11 and so was Sodom unto strangers And so are your Streets and Synagogues and therefore spiritually you are more like Sodom and Egypt where our Lord is crucified than to the Church of Christ Therefore take not your selves any longer to be that you are not nor blaspheme the Name of Christ any longer by calling your selves his Church while you live in such wickedness but rather fear his Indigation lest that or some like judgment come upon you which came upon those who lived in Violence as you do The Church of Christ is pure And whoever gets the name and yet lives in impurity shall be kept out from entring into the New Jerusalem which is now coming down from God out of Heaven not seen with outward eyes nor known to carnal hearts nor entred into by the unclean and yet her gates stand open day and night But to keep lower to your capacity In the Primitive times the Church was patient under their sufferings 2 Thess 1.4 Are you so Or are not they rather found such who suffer by you Do not ye cast out hard speeches with your Violence against them that are found in the like patient suffering with the Saints in the Primitive times So see and judge impartially Is it you that resemble the Church of Christ or is it those that you rage against that resembles it Again Is not your Church made up of such persons as fear not God ungodly men and women Sweaters Drunkards Cursed speakers Revilers of those that are good Proud and haughty and high-minded Persons glorying in Apparrel and gay clothing other than what the Apostles of our Lord approved of conceited persons yet dark and ignorant in the things of God men that take pleasure in Wantonness and Vanity and Pastimes as they call them who count foolish talking and jesting an ornament to their speech and grace to their behaviour being past feeling in themselves of the things that displease God and quench the Spirit men that savour not the things of God nor have any pleasure and delight in Holiness and Righteousness to whom it 's a burden even to hear of things spiritual that belong to the Kingdom of God out of whose communication spiritual things are banished so that it 's uncouth and distastful to them to confer of the things of the Kingdom of God before them and especially when they are feeding themselves without fear upon the good creatures of God Others are carnally minded worldly minded having their spirits eaten up with the Thoughts of the world and Cares of the world and Love of the world and Honour of the world and Lusts of the world Covetous persons who dare lie one to another

by steps as they have been able to bear Who have tryed their wayes by the Word of Truth and tryed also the false deceivable wayes of mens Traditions and Inventions Take heed I say of speaking evil of the things thou understands not and if thou hast been guilty hereof formerly repent of that wickednesse and pray to the Lord to forgive the thoughts of thine heart and the hard speeches of thy mouth uttered against the wayes of Truth in the time of thy Ignorance And rest not until thou hast got out of those Mists which have risen out of the bottomless Pit and which have darkened the Sun in the firmament that is the pure shining of the Light into the Conscience Haste haste out of that which the Wrath and Indignation of the Lord must come upon and fly to him in the humility of thy soul repenting of thy errour and blindness and hypocrisie and evil state and course of life thou hast been in and come down to be guided and led of that pure Light which leads to Eternal Life and so to come to the Covenant of God the New Covenant which all are in that are owned by him For this is my Covenant saith the Lord In those dayes I will write my Laws in their minds and put them in their hearts And whosoever is not come into this Covenant he is not owned of God For all his from the least to the greatest shall all be taught of God by his Spirit And therefore saith the Apostle plainly Rom. 8. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now this is that which The ANTICHRIST by the Mystery of Iniquity hath held you off from for his working hath been against the New Covenant which we now clearly see and by what means he doth it eternal praises be given to our heavenly Father who hath made known his wiles and deceivings For it hath been with a golden Cup that the Anti-Anointing or Anti-Christ hath deceived the Naitons even a fine spun outward Form of Religion of some kind or other So keeping their minds still outward from that New Covenant keeping them busie with this Form or that Form outward that they might never come to mind God in the way of his Covenant For whereas the New Covenant comprehends all the Worship of God inwardly in it self Circumcision inward Baptism inward viz. the answer of a good Conscience to God which is that that saves Temple inward House of Prayer inward Worship inward in Spirit and in Truth Contrariwise The Mystery of Iniquity hath kept mens minds still outward and pleased the carnal spirit with abundance of Outward Observations thereby resting it in them by blessing them in their diligent Observation thereof So that they have not been stirred up to seek after the knowledge of God in themselves and to feel the Communion and Fellowship inwardly with him in the way of his New Covenant in the Spirit which CHRIST was made the Mediator of And so about these Outward Forms and Ordinances so called they fight and quarrel and seek to kill and destroy and so still are kept in the murdering spirit And so lot this be A Sign unto you to let you know in what State that Spirit holds you that makes you zealous for outward formes Is it not in the murthering State where Cain was and yet you see not his wiles for he that murthers is the same from the beginning In the New Covenant it s otherwise for there 's a Spirit that delights to seek and save that which is lost and that is of God and conformable to the Image of his Son To whom be Glory and Honour for ever Amen An ADDITION concerning LORD-BISHOPS Let the Light in every ones Conscience who have any acquaintance with the Scriptures judge Whether Our Lord Jesus Christ allowed of that Lordship and Dominion which those called Lord-Bishops take upon them or exercise when as he reproved the very first appearance of such a thing among his Disciples read Matth. 20.25 26. Mark 10.42 43. Luke 22.25 26. saith he The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great minde that 's the thing he reproves whosoever will be great let him be your Minister that is servant and then he repeats it over again in other words And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant And in Luke it s thus exprest Let him be as a younger As if he should say carry quite contrary to such a one in the thing that he would have Whereas he affects Greatness carry to him as a Servant and as a Younger give him not the honour of an Elder Now where 's their Obedience to Christ who dare take upon them such a thing which he hath so plainly forbidden Yea and forbidden others also to receive them as such if any will be so bold as to exalt themselves among them and become great For faith our Lord If any will get up and be great among you let him be your servant and as a younger Wherein the words of Christ is implyed That Dominion and Greatnesse cannot grow up among them except they concurre with him that seeks it and give it to him Therefore as laying a charge of keeping down such a spirit upon the rest of his Disciples he bids them not to concurre and consent to such a thing nor to give that greatnesse to any of his Disciples among them if they should seek it but to carry to such as to a Younger and not as to an Elder and to let him be as one that serves and not as one to Lord it and Rule and have Dominion And so to keep down that spirit that it may not be among You as it is among the Gentiles that know not me to be the one Lord. Honour is in him that gives it If you give it not they cannot have it To open the thing a little further for the simplicity's sake that is in some who think That because there is the name Bishop in Scripture that therefore such Bishops as have the Name now in these dayes have their Authority from Scripture To such I say Minde but the Scriptures well and you will find that the Name Bishop was not given to one that Lorded it over the rest but to the several Pastors or Teachers or feeders of the Flock of Christ read Act. 20.17 and so on to the 28 and 35. The place is so translated that it may be you will discern little in the bare reading of it I shall therefore open it a little plainly according to the Letter of it not by giving you another meaning or Interpretation then what it sayes but by letting you see what it sayes In the 17 Verse its said that Paul sent from Miletus to Ephesus to call the Elders of the Church of Ephesus When they were come he puts