Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	ordination_n	presbyter_n	9,874	5	10.5221	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34532	An account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the Church of England in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion, against the misrepresentation made of them, and in hearty desire of unity in the Church, and of peace and concord among all true Protestants, for the strengthening of their common interest, in this time of their common danger / written by Mr. John Corbet ...	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1682 (1682)	Wing C6251; ESTC R224970	23,021	37

Faith and Sacraments And we greatly esteem the soundness of the Doctrine contained in the Homilies We unfeignedly assent to the sense of his Majesties Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in that Passage wherein he justly rebukes those that had the hardyness to publish that the Doctrine of the Church against which no man with whom he had conferred had excepted ought to be Reformed as well as the Discipline Be it here observed that some Conformists tell us that they heartily subscribe to the Nine and Thirty Articles taking the liberty of interpretation that is allowed by the Church her self though it be most reasonable to presume that she requires subscription to them as to an Instrument of Peace only And for this the Testimony of an eminent Bishop is cited saying The Church of England doth not define any of these Questions as necessary to be believed necessitate medii or praecepti which is much less but only to bind her Sons for Peace sake not to oppose them But for our parts we believe the very truth of the Doctrine contained in them according to the genuine sense of the words 4. We are not ashamed constantly to affirm that the word of God is the perfect Rule of Divine Faith and VVorship and we apprehend that it is not Lawfull for the Church or any power upon Earth to make new worship of the same common nature and reason with those universal and perpetual Ordinances which the word hath already made Nevertheless particular modes and accidents and mere circumstances of worship which are common to it with all Humane actions are left to the determination of Humane Prudence according to the general Rules of Scripture And we take such determination in those matters to be no addition to God's word and no argument of the defectiveness of his Laws but merely an application of the general Law in particular cases as the Law it self doth warrant A firm agreement of the Non-Conformists with the Church of England in the substantial parts of God's worship hath been long since manifested in their Papers presented to his Majesty We still acknowledge the lawfulness of a set form of Liturgy for matter agreable to God's word and suited to the nature of the several Ordinances and to the necessities of the Church yet the Minister should not be so confined to it as not to make use of his own gifts of Prayer and Exhortation VVe still profess that we are obliged to do all things decently and in order but we are not satisfied in the lawfulness of such Ceremonies as in their designed end seem to draw to near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and which have been rejected by many of the Reformed Churches abroad And we believe that God's worship is best managed for the Exterior form thereof when it hath least of Humane mixtures in things unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto 5. We intirely own that Ministry that God hath set in the Church whether extraordinary and temporary as that of the Apostles or ordinary and perpetual as that of Bishops or Pastors and Teachers VVe believe that it is Christs high prerogative transcending all Humane authority to institute Spiritual Offices how be it there may be Offices circa sacra of man's appointment That Spiritual Officers receive their authority from Christ as the immediate Donor thereof by his Charter though their designation to their Office it not ordinarily immediate without man's interposing and consequently they are Christ's immediate Stewards commissioned by him and accountable to him each one for himself in particular That the power of the Keys for binding and losing for retaining and remitting of sins is essential to a Presbyter or Bishop That Ministerial power is delivered by Ordination as by way of solemn investiture and that each particular Church ought to have their proper Bishop or Pastor one or more residing among them for all Ministerial duties who hath no coercive power upon the bodies or estates of men and may rule them by no other instrument than the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God working upon their Consciences and their outward standing in the Church 6. The Church being the Lord's heritage and portion ought not to lye common but must be fenced with Christ's Spiritual Discipline that it be not laid wast and lost in a VVorld of Ungodliness breaking in upon it This charge is committed to the Pastors who are accountable for the same to the chief Shepherd By the order of the Church of England all Presbyters were charged till very lately in the form of ordaining Ministers to administer the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline as the Lord hath ordained and as this Realm hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus was appointed to be read to them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over-seers to rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Admission into the Church by Baptism is one act of Pastoral Government and includes the judging of the title of the party to be so admitted That which we require in the adult for their visible Church-Membership is their intelligent owning of the Baptismal Covenant by a serious profession there being no notoriety or proof of an invalidating contradiction Other parts of Discipline are the publick admonition of scandalous offenders and injoyning of penitence the Excommunication of the obstinate and the absolution of the penitent This Spiritual Government is not to be managed with external force and terror like the secular power but by Reproof Exhortation and Doctrine that the offender may be convinced and judged in his own Conscience And we take it for a great reproach to Christ's Discipline to tell the VVorld that it is a powerless thing of it self and insufficient to obtain its end unless the temporal Sword inforce it Yet we would not have the Church destitute of the Magistrate's due assistance and encouragement 7. As touching the form of Church Government the Scripture-bishop or Evangelical Pastor we do and ever did acknowledge Likewise we neither do nor ever did renounce the Episcopacy or Presidency which was of an ancient Ecclesiastical Custom as in the time of Ignatius yea or of Cyprian Bishop Ushers model of Government by Bishops and Arch-bishops with their Presbyters was by some of us presented to his Majesty as a ground-work of accommodation King Charles the First in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two Houses in point of Church Government declares his judgment in these words That he is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joynt counsell and consent of many Presbyters but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities

which are incident to any one man also to avoid tyranny which becomes no Christian least of all Church men besides it will be a means to take away that odium and burden of affairs that may lye too heavy on one mans shoulders as he thought it did formerly on the Bishops here VVe judge the Episcopal or Pastoral Office to be a personal trust not to be discharged by delegation to others and especially that it cannot be deputed to them that are not Bishops or Pastors and that secular persons cannot administer that power which intrinsecally belongs to Spiritual Officers And we cannot justifie any Ecclesiastical Government in a stated bereaving of the Pastors of particular Churches of that power that is essential to their office and in a stated hindering of the effectual exercise of Church Discipline 8. We detest all manner of Sacriledge and we think we are as willing as any others that it should be noted and reproved and that one kind thereof the unjust alienation of Lands and Goods devoted to the Church's use for the support of Gods service we utterly condemn But there are those that think they can never enough inveigh against this kind yet fear not to commit the same sin in other instances which are not less abominable as the Sacriledge of Pluralists Non-residents and all negligent and insufficient Ministers who devour that which is Holy taking the Ministerial benefice and not performing the service And to alienate persons and gifts that have beensolemnly consecrated to God we take to be real Sacriledge 9. We are as willing as any others to take notice of the heinous sin of Schism But we earnestly desire many that cry out against Schismaticks more impartially to consider the nature of this sin and to hate it in its full extent We know the necessity and excellency of Christian Unity and Concord and the deformity and misery of division and earnestly pray that Christian Charity might be so conspicuous that all may know that we are Christ's Disciples by our loving one another We are for building the Church's Unity upon its only adequate Foundation which is Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever and in vain do any hope to build it upon a narrower Foundation We are against the devising of new Articles of Faith and new parts of Religion and the inforcing of Oaths and Subscriptions to the same We require subscription or ingagement to no more than the Holy Bible and if any swerve from the truth in wicked error or practice let them be tryed and judged by that unalterable Law which themselves have assented to And we think this the surest way to preserve the Christian Church in soundness of Doctrine integrity of Life and Holy Peace But if the setting forth of a publick confession of Faith or Articles of Religion be insisted on we allow it as a rule to Preachers who may be punishable if they preach contrary Doctrine though they be not inforced to subscribe to every Tittle Moreover we hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true Church as no Church for the corruptions and disorders found therein or to separate from its worship for the tolerable faults thereof while our personal profession of some error or practice of some evil is not required as the terms of our Communion How be it we are not so indifferent in this matter as to make no difference between Churches and Pastors The more pure and powerfull administration of God's Ordinances is to be preferred before that which is more faulty and less effectual And here again we acknowledge that in this preferrence due caution must be used VVe must not respect our own particular benefit before publick peace and order and the general good 10. VVe believe that the power of civil Magistrates is God's Ordinance necessary for the Government of the world that their whole authority is derived from him and subordinate to him the only universal and unlimited Sovereign Lord That God's Glory and the Eternal Salvation of men are higher and nobler ends of their authority than temporal prosperity and peace that all their decrees and executions should chiefly refer to these ends and that in their way they are charged with the Souls of men under their jurisdiction VVe acknowledge that Supreme Magistrates have a civil supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters and a political Episcopacy over the Pastors of the Church in their sacred administrations and may compell them to the performance of their duty and punish them for their negligence or mal-administration that they may call Synods and make Canons and warrantably thus reform the Church when it stands in need of Reformation Accordingly we acknowledge the Kings Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiastical in these his Majesties Realms and Dominions Moreover we believe that the higher powers are not to be mere Executioners of the judgments of Ecclesiasticks but that they may and must be Judges thereof themselves in order to their own execution That their great and proper work about Religion is to incourage and inforce obedience to the Divine Laws and in subserviency thereunto to determine such things circa sacra as are requisite in general but in the particulars are left undetermined of God Likewise that by moderate penalties they may restrain persons of impious Principles as Atheists Infidels Hereticks from venting their wicked errors and from any open impious practice and that they may constrain men to use such means as God hath made Universally necessary to bring the ignorant to knowledge but not to profess either in word or deed what they believe not or to take that which God hath made the special priviledge of believers Lastly Their imperial Government in Religion should be mixed with a paternal clemency and tenderness according to the meekness of Christ whose Servants they are not only as Christians but as Magistrates 13. It is our Principle that Humane Laws bind the Conscience or to speak more properly the subjects in point of Conscience not by a primary obligation as the laws of God do but by a secundary and subordinate as from a power derived from God As it is an evident and important truth that Inferiors ought to obey their Superiors for Conscience sake so it is as evident and important that when Mens commands contradict the commands of God it is God and not man that must have the preeminence in our obedience VVith us it is no controversie whether the King or Conscience be the Supreme Governour It is the Magistrate only that enacts publike laws and hath the publike decisive judgment whether according to his Laws we are justifiable or condemnable As for Conscience it is no Governour at all but only a discerner of our duty and an internal witness for us or against us according to our practice and consequently it is concerned to know the will of God and whether the commands of men be consentaneous or contrary thereunto which men call