Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	epistle_n	paul_n	timothy_n	2,910	5	10.4803	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25601	An Answer to the Lord George Digbies apology for himself published Jan 4, Anno Dom. 1642 put in the great court of equity otherwise called the court of conscience, upon the 28th of the same moneth / by Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes Decius.	Decius, Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Lord George Digbie's apology for himself.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Two letters, the one from the Lord Digby, to the Queens Majestie ; the other from Mr. Thomas Elliot.; Elliot, Thomas.	1642 (1642)	Wing A3421; ESTC R8961	70,751	74

that a man may sooner lose himself then save you that hath the courage to attempt it by going against the stream yet I have so much compassion of your undeserved sufferings in this matter except in that point of discretion I have already noted that I am resolved to adventure my se●● in hope your Lordship will not be wanting either to ●●●r selfe or to me in case your Lordship should chance to see me carryed down in another as violent a channell or it may be in the same for doing my good will to help you Which that I may do with the lesse hazard and more hope of successe I must first give the world notice of an error of your Lordships in this matter of Episcopacy from which all the other you have since committed in that businesse have bin derived although I observe that as well in that Speech as in your present Apology your Lordship hath studiously concealed that mistaken principle which hath bin so fertile of other mistakes in you and of you And that is the opinion that Episcopacy was erected by the Apostles and consequently in your Lordships judgement so authorized Iure Divino that it may not be altered whereof your Lordship was once so confident that you wisht it might be made a part of the Catechisme of our Church if I do not misremember For it stands so in my memory ever since I had a cursory sight of the Letters which pass'd between your Lordship and your Cousin Sir Kellam Digby having at that time observed it an hyperbollicall expression which in matters of Religion it is not alwayes safe to use If your Lordship be still of the same judgement which I hope you are not let me presume humbly to advise you to resume the study of both those points by an impartiall perusall of the Bookes have been partly written and partly set forth in the liberty of these last yeers which I am therefore in hope will be sufficient to alter your mind in that matter because they have done mine in the former which is the fairer of them who came to the reading of the Arguments against it with as much prejudice as your Lordship can do having contracted it in part by the great reverence I ever did and do yet bear to the great wisdom learning and piety of Mr. Hooker whom I knew and heard when I was a boy and with whom some friends of mine who in their time were in the number of the ablest men of this Kingdom for wisdom and learning had extraordinary friendship and were also of the same judgement with him In part by the like reverence I bore to Doctor Downham since Bishop in Ireland who put forth a Sermon to shew the Jurisd●ction of Bishops over Presbyters was instituted by the Apostles when I was a young man at Cambridge where he was before that in great and good fame but chiefly by the presumption that the Addresses make at the foot of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus as B●shops were of Saint Pauls own writing because I found them in my Greek Testament For if that be first admitted there is some appearance of their having beene Diocesans by the authority thereby given them to appoint and rule over Presbyters in the Churches committed to their charge But if this be an abuse as I have been convinced that it is since I returned with an hoary head to a new examination of this Book controversie when the sword was taken up to decide it in Scotland then there will be no firme ground for a Diocesan Bishop found in the whole Scripture but much to the contrary as hath been learnedly proved by Master Bayne that succeeded Mr. Perkins at Cambridge in the Answer he made to Doctor Downham written soon after which I never saw till these last yeers brought it to light but hath bin the Treasury out of which the Scriblers of this licentious age have stollen almost all they have of worth to which they have added little besides unfit language which they had not from him whose name I cannot suffer to passe my pen without this Elogy that he was the most accomplished Preacher I ever yet heard in all my life having heard very many of many Nations and the man that to mee seemed most in Heaven while he prayed that my eyes ever saw I beseech your Lordship to take the paines to read his short Tract upon my recommendation and that of Gersom Bucer upon the same subject not despising the rest which have shewed themselves on either side in this controversie since some of our Prelates have not been ashamed indicere bellum Episcopale and then to do me the honour to let me know whether you persevere in that you wrote to your Cousin Sir Ken●lme for I have cause to believe it is a tenet set on foot in our Church at the beginning of the raign of of our late Soveraign of famous memory not because it was believed by them that directed others to broach it among us but out of a politique design wherein the Jesuits had an unseen hand invented first out of fear that his Majesty who had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland might at one time or other bee ingaged to doe the like in this Kingdom and when they found it tooke with his Majesty then imployed further to work upon his pious and bountifull heart for the reintroducing of Episcopacy in that Kingdom an Act of Royall magnificence and princely piety and if your Lordships opinion of the necessity of Episcopacy in all Churches as founded in divine right can be maintained at the height as no doubt was powerfully instilled into his Majesty an Act as well pleasing to God as glorious before men And in the raigne of the King our Soveraign that now is whom God long preserve it is evident that the same Doctrine hath been imployed to the ingaging of his Maje●ty notwithstanding all the reluctancy of his most eminent clemency to undertake a War against our brethren and his most loyall subjects of that his native Countrey with an upright heart For admitting your Lordships Tenet which it is manifest was infused into the King as an undoubted truth there could be no question of the justice of that War on his Majesties part of which I forbear to make any further mention least it should prove a controvension of the Act of oblivion although I humbly conceive there is something besides exceeding necessary to be thought upon by His Maiesty and that Kingdom and this seeing God Almighty is not bound by that act O Lord whether do we run through the darknesse that is in us if we once depart but a little from the light of thy holy word And where can we stay our wandring steps When both the war with this and the troubles in that Kingdom were through his Maiesties goodnesse and wisdom at length sweetly composed by an utter and eternall abolition of Episcopacy there as Antichristian in the opinion of that Church yet