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	deacon_n	presbyter_n	3,199	5	9.7644	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47908	The relaps'd apostate, or, Notes upon a Presbyterian pamphlet, entituled, A petition for peace, &c. wherein the faction and design are laid as open as heart can wish by Roger L'Estrange.	L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1293; ESTC R16441	60,742	101

all civil Causes are hook'd in within Cognizance of the Consistory and found within the Purlues of their Discipline As their Ambition is remarkable in all Cases so is their Purpose most observable in this before us What signifies the necessity of Their Discipline to Our Peace but that Bishops must down and Presbytery up or we shall have no Quiet with them For a Come-off All things must be done with singleness of heart they tell us as having all things in common Act. 2.46.4.32 This is a morfel for the Independents No such Things as our controverted Inquisitions were then made necessary c. Never had men worse luck with Texts Mark but these two Quotations now and then admire the subtle Inference from them No Impositions Then and consequently none must be Now. Would our Reformers have had the Church order'd before it was gather'd Rules for Church-government establish'd before Christianity it self was acknowledg'd The Apostles had but newly receiv'd the holy Ghost and to convince the Jews of the Divinity of that IESUS whom they had crucified was their first Business and Commission Faith and Repentance was their Theme the Question Men and Brethren What shall we do not how Then Peter said unto them Repent and be Baptized Act 2.37 38. Then says the Text they that gladly received his word were Baptized and they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers vers 42. If the Apostles had been Presbyterians they would perhaps have begun with their holy Discipline and laid the Sacraments aside to be considered of at leisure Had it not been a most preposterous course to have directed the manner of our Worship before they had laid the foundation of our Faith 'T is said again chap. 4. vers 32. that the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. And here 's no mention of Impositions neither whence they infer the non-necessity of Impositions as to Concord When these Gentlemen shall have prov'd Impositions unnecessary they have a long way yet to go ere they shall be able to prove them unlawful But till they have done the former we shall persist in our opinion of their necessity at least conveniential not to Salvation but to Vnity It must be noted that this unanimity in the believing multititude was a miraculous grace They were all filled with the holy Ghost says the verse next antecedent and the connexion fairly implies this wonderful Agreement to be the imm●diate working of that blessed Inspiration We find a while after when the number of the Disciples was multiplyed there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration Chap. 6. vers 1. The bond of Universal Unity begins to slacken already This Difference gave occasion to the institution of Deacons Church-Officers being already appointed Apostles and Presbyters by our Saviour himself and Deacons by the Apostles we come now to Church-Orders or in the holy Language Impositions Concerning which one General serves for All Let every thing be done decently and in order But the determination of that Decency is left to the Church THe common Adversaries of our Religion and of the King and Kingdom will rejoyce to see us weakned by our Divisions and employed in afflicting or censuring one another and to see so many able Ministers laid aside that might do much displeasure to Satan by the weakning of his Kingdom and by promoting the Gospel and Kingdom of the Lord. NOTE XXV SInce our Reformers have not over much Modesty I wish they had a little more Argument that a man might either with Charity believe them in a mistake or with Honor shew them the way out of it Who are the common Adversaries now The King and his Party were wont to be the common Enemies But here they talk of Adversaries to our Religion the King and Kingdom They may intend the King still for ought I know They charg'd his Royal Father with Popery and yet They themselves brought him to the Scaffold because he would not set it up under forsooth the disguise of Presbytery They declar'd him likewise an enemy to King and Kingdom by making his Person an enemy to his Authority as they distinguished them Briefly who ever they are that hate us they may well rejoyce to see us thus Divided but woe be to them from whom these Divisions come 'T is not for Subjects to expostulate with Rulers to start from the Laws and bid Authority follow them Bishop Taylor says very well concerning Scandal Before the Law be made the Superior must comply with the Subject After it is made the Subject must comply with the Law The latter is our case and the Imposition lies on the other side upon the Law not upon the People But the great pity is so many able Ministers are laid aside Truly as to the ability of good lungs loud and long talking we 'l not contend with them But that they are such Champions for the Lord's Kingdom against Satan's is more then without better proof we are bound to credit However they had better have a tug with Satan here than hereafter but they must go another way to work then for to destroy the Kingdoms of this world without commission is without controversie to advance the Kingdom of Darkness and to do the Devil a special piece of service IF what you study for be indeed of God this course of unmercifull imposition is the greatest wrong to it that you can easily he drawn to unawares while so many truly fearing God are cast out or trodden down and tempted to think ill of that which themselves and the Church thus suffer by and when so many of the worst befriend this way because it gratifieth them it tendeth to make your cause judged of according to the quality of its friends and adversaries And how great a hand this very thing hath had already in the dislike of that is befallen Diocesans Ceremonies and the Liturgy is a thing too generally known to need proof NOTE XXVI MEthinks the Sir Johns grow a little pernicacious as our Author has it unmerciful Impositions What no more Covenants I hope But 't is at unawares they say That helps the matter It seems the Bishops do they know not what a Jolly Garb for a Petition This. But see the Godly men are not only Oppressed but Tempted to think ill of what they suffer by They are clearly for Ruling with the Ungodly and Flourishing like a Green Bay-Tree but they do not love to think of being cast down with them from Slippery places and destroyed of Consuming Perishing and Coming to a Fearful End of suffering their most certain Fate to be rooted out at last As nothing can be clearer then that their Cryes are Causeless so is it not less Evident that were they Truths their Practises are yet Vnchristian and that they are

necessity Pigg may be Eaten Yea Exceedingly well Eaten I would the whole Nation might but once dream of such a Whipping as when these Reverences got the Law into their own hands their bounty would bestow upon them They would use no other bug-word to their Children then the Presbyterians are coming Wer 't not a blessed Reformation to have an Almighty Inquisition set up in every Parish to see a Pontificall Presbyter rule as King and Priest over the Estates and Consciences of his subjected congregation To have but One Commandement to keep in stead of Ten Obey the Presbyter In truth 't is such a Government of Clouts I cannot chuse but play the Fool with it Briefly when They 're permitted to make Laws let us make Halters We have tasted them already and if They proceed to mind us of their Old Discipline let us mind one another of our Old slavery and Them too that they now plead for a Bratt by their own rule not to be received into the Church for it was conceived in Schisme and Brought forth in Rebellion God blesse us I mean Presbytery Whereas they urge that several Liturgies have been allowed under the same Prince c. Confeis'd It hath been so and may be so again and with good reason too yet all this while This proves no Title our Pretenders have to the same Liberty Where People of differing Humours and wonted to Differing Customes are united under the same Prince Prudence advises a Diversity of Liturgyes Again 'T is one thing to perswade a Prince another thing to force him but the main reason is yet to come These bold Petitioners presse the King to give them what they Got and kept so long as they could hold it by Rebellion to grant away what his Royal Father held dearer then his Bloud and to complete the shamelesse proposition some of the now Petitioners to the Son were the hot Persecutors of the Father In fine they act as if they would vie Provocation with the Kings Mercy they ask That which his Majesty cannot grant but with a Double hazzard to himself both from the Government and from the Persons A IF you should reject which God forbid the moderate Proposals which now and formerly we have made we humbly crave leave to offer it to your consideration what Judgement all the Protestant Churches are likely to pass on your proceedings and how your cause and ours will stand represented to them and to all succeeding Ages B If after our submission to his Majesties Declaration and after our own Proposals of the Primitive Episcopacy and of such a Liturgy as here we tender we may not be permited to exercise our Ministry or enjoy the Publick Worship of God the Pens of those Learned moderate Bishops will bear witness against you that were once employed as the chief Defenders of that cause we mean such as Reverend Bishop Hall and Usher who have published to the World that much less than this might have served to our fraternal Vnity and Peace C And we doubt not but you know how new and strange a thing it is that you require in the Point of Reordination When a Canon amongst those called the Apostles deposeth those that Re-ordain and that are re-ordained D Not only the former Bishops of England that were more moderate were against it but even the most fervent adversaries of the Presbyterian way such as Bishop Bancroft himself how strange must it needs seem to the Reformed Churches to the whole Christian World and to future Generations that so many able faithful Ministers should be laid by as broken Vessells because they dare not be re-ordained and that so many have been put upon so new and so Generally dis-rellished a thing NOTE XVI A AS to the Protestant Churches if they have not chang'd their opinions they will give the same judgement of These people now which they did formerly That is they will disown Them and their Actions for being so singular and Impious as to oppose the Reason Right and Practice of all other Nations who Generally have their set-forms of Prayer Touching the Moderation of their Proposals it is already enough notorious B If after our Submission to his Majesties Declaration c. Prodigious Boldnesse and Ingratitude Submission as if the King had Press'd when he Relax'd them an Indulgence beyond President bestow'd upon a people void of Sense Indeed a Meritorious Patience was their Submission Content they were not for many of the Presbyterian Teachers here about the Town Petition'd for more so soon as That was Granted But how have they submitted They have not Strook That 's all Do they not daily Preach Write Print against Episcopacy in opposition to the Express Intent and Letter of the foresaid Declaration Do they not prejudge the Synod to which that Declaration referrs them Yes and abuse the Freedome of proposing some Alterations by the Rejection of the Whole Suitable to This Submission are Their Proposals both of the Primitive Episcopacy and of their Liturgy Their Liturgy as we have spoken formerly is a Contest for Dominion not for Conscience and comes to This at Last If they may not Rule they will not worship Their Primitive Episcopacy sounds as much as Presbytery for they confound the Termes as if Bishop and Presbyter were Originally the same and Prelacy as the Queynt Smectymnuus has it of Diabolical Occasion not of Apostolical Intention At This Rate what do they offer in a Primitive Episcopacy Bishops in truth they allow but so that every Presbyter must be as Bishop To give the matter Credit they Appeal to the Reverend Hall and Vsher those Learned Moderate Bishops as they Term them whose Pens are to bear witness against These now in Being and Authority if they refuse their Askings I am told and I believe it that at least One of the Smectymnuans had a hand in this New Liturgy and Petition for Peace If so I must needs put the Gentleman a Froward Question Is Bishop Hall so much emprov'd since he Dy'd in truth a Prelate to whose Memory the Church of England owes great Reverence This was that Learn'd and Moderate Bishop that Smectymnuus so bespatter'd under the Name of the Remonstrant But will you see now how that Noble Prelate was bayted by five of our new-fangled Primitive Bishops S.M. E.C. T.Y. M. N. W. S. let Mr. Manton uncipher this Variae Lectiones upon Reverend Moderate and Learned Episcopal bravado Pag. 3. Treason Treason Pag. 4. We know not what his Arrogancy might attempt Pag. 14. So many Falsities and Contradictions Pag. 15. A Face of confident Boldness A Self confounded man Notorious Falsity ibid. His Notorious not leave his Pag. 16. Os durum forgets not himself but God also Words bordering upon Blasphemy Indignation will not suffer us to prosecute these Falsities Pag. 18. A Stirrup for Antichrist Pag. 30. Antichristian Government Pag. 65. We thank God we are none of you Pag. 74. Borders upon