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
A76079	A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving that all malignants, whether they be prelates, popish-cavaleers, with all other ill-affected persons, are enemies to God and the King: who desire the suppression of the Gospel, the advancement of superstition, the diminution of the Kings prerogative and authority, with the oppression of the subject. All which is evinced by strong proofes, and sufficient reasons. By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing B1061; Thomason E101_8; ESTC R1900	48,987	64

Priest and Festus the Governour that they ever did revile those that were brought before them or give them any ill language And the one was a Jew and the other a Heathen both enemies of Christ and Christians But for Christian Judges and them Spirituall ones for such contumeliously to abuse their brethren as they did the Defendant and daily doe others and to give them over to the Devill and to perpetuall chaines for every triviall thing yea even for a misprision or a very surmise and to make a man an offender for a word and to ruine them their wives and children for such things and that with scoffes reproaches tants and mocks this the Defendant affirmeth in the Prelates is both cruelty injustice intemperance and want of wisdome and so he nothing doubteth but this honourable Court and all rationall men will judge Neither doth his gracious Majestie or this honourable Court as he truly beleeveth know how they abuse his poor Subjects neither will God take this well at their hands for it no way beseemeth those that would be thought the Fathers of the Church so to do For if we look upon Timothy and Titus whose successors they would be thought to be and the rules that they followed and were guided by we shall finde a vast difference between them Saint Paul in his second epistle to Timothy chapter 2. telleth him That the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meeknesse instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth c. And in another place the same Apostle saith A Bishop must be patient and no brawler Now when the Prelates so exorbitantly behave themselves trampling all Apostolicall Canons under their feet and so basly revile the good subjects of the King their brethren trampling also the sacred scriptures under their feet hat with as great contempt as the Papists themselves doe advancing Popery every way and the Defenders of it can any deny that these are intemperate imprudent unjust men and furtherers and upholders of Popery and whereas the Defendant is charged in the information That he accuseth the Prelates as upholders of Idolatry superstition and prophanesse and that he defameth the witnesses brought against him and hath causlesly and boldly inveighed against the oath Ex officio The Defendant humbly intreateth the honourable Court that with patience they would hear his answer to these things and then he will come to the last thing that concerneth him the Letany and the occasion of the writing of it What he himself hath done he is ever resolved to seale with his best blood and to justifie and make good whatsoever he shall accuse the Prelates of Amongst the which he acknowledgeth that he chargeth them to be advancers of Popery idolatrie superstition and prophanesse And so they are as hath been already sufficiently evinced and by that which followeth shall yet more illustriously appear For what is it to advance Popery and idolatry if that the Prelates daily do it not without men will think that Popery onely that advanceth the Popes Supremacy and they Protestants onely that go no farther in opposing that Hereticall religion when that is among many Divines counted one of the least controversies in Theology between Papists and us true Catholicks Greater matters I wosse hundreds are there between us And howsoever the King blessed be God and his predecessors by the blood of their Subjects and the sacrificing of themselves have shaken off the yoake of the Pope yet his poor Subjects are under many Popes which deal worse with them then ever Popes did to Kings in the midst of their swellingst pride and arrogancy yea every parish Priest and base fellow that is but a Prelates Servant can ruine and undo the honestest man upon any information So that for the Subjects condition it is worse and they are in a far more deplorable predicament then they were in under the Pope by this change for now they have neither their consciences their liberties their purses their bodies their limbs or lives in any security but as the Prelates and their creatures please are deprived of all who seek continually for their blood and starve many of them in prisons and expose them to infinite miseries and calamityes so that they are as sheep to the slaughter slain all the day long And of their deadly crueltie against those that fear God the whole Kingdome can witnesse and how that they make the● every where most odious But now to the matter the Defendant chargeth the Prelates with viz. that they are advancers of Idolatry who can doubt of it that knoweth the very rudiments of Divinity or i● the least measure hath been acquainted with the Lawes of God For as God onely is and must be the object of all Divine worship as the first commandment teacheth for him onely we are to serue Matth. 4. as Christ also commandeth and to worship any other or to trust in any thing else is i●olatry in a high degree for we must love him with all our hearts and all our Soules and trust onely in him So likewise for the manner of his worship that must also be as he commandeth not as we vainely conceive For he hath said Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image or the likenesse of any thing in Heaven above or in the earth beneath thou shalt not bow down to it or worship it By which precept for the very manner of his worship it is not left to our disposing that we should after our inventions serve him Neither is he to be served any other way or by any other means then he hath in his Word prescribed which is a large commentary upon that text So that no man that hath eyes can pretend any longer that he seeth not the truth And among all learned and Orthodox Divines this is accorded and assented unto That those that by their own inventions as by Images Crucifixes Altars Ceremonies or Syllables and letters or whatsoever other meanes serve him without expresse command from God go about to worship him are Idolaters and such worship is idolatry and of this kinde of service and adoration are the Samaritans guilty of whom it is said that they worshipped the true God and so they did in many things according to the Law of Moses and had Circumcision and the Passeover and looked for the Messias to come But because they added their own inventions to that worship and brought in their own devices with it and set up a will worship therefore they were esteemed the enemies of God and proclaimed idolaters Ye worship saith Christ you know not what So that they that according to their own pretences and inventions serve God worship they know not what and therefore are idolaters and all such Divine worship as is not prescribed by God such service is idolatry Of which kinde and nature is altar-worship crucifix-worship table-worship place-worship ceremony-worship bread-worship Syllable-worship and all such like-worship and indeed all will-worship and whether or no the Prelates be not advancers of Altars and Crucifixes and place-worship ceremony and bread-worship and such trash let all the Kingdome judge And all these are Popery saving the worshipping of altars for the Defendant yet never saw the Papists so basly idolatrous as to worship a naked altar indeed where there is a Crucifix upon an altar they bow but never to the altar or table alone as he is most confident the Papists themselves wil acknowledge therefore so grosse the Prelats are in their Popish performances that they exceed them in idolatry And so it is that those that are most vainly superstitious amongst them they are in the readiest way to preferment and others of a contrary minde most contemned and vilipended which sheweth sufficiently what favourers of Popery the Prelates are Yea for all manner of Popery they affect it and defend it and maintaine it and the Authours and Abetters of it And as to all other the residue of the offences and misdemeanours complained of in the said Information and examinable in this Honourable Court this Defendant saith that he is not guilty of them or any of them in manner and form as by the said Information is supposed All which matters this Defendant is ready to averre and prove as this Honourable Court shall award And humbly prayeth to be dismissed out of the same with his costs and charges against the Prelates by vexation in this and his former suit in the High Commission most wrongfully sustained FJNJS

defendant there said if they commanded nothing contrary to the will and Word of God that he for his part out of the reverence duty and loyalty to his Prince would obey it The Words in the Originall are these Verum de Episcoporum autoritate locutus à bonis bene intelligi cupio Non enim litis litem moveo quatenus ab Imperatoribus Regibus Principibus Terrae quorum interest salutem civium tueri potestate Ius Imperiii in socios totumque Dei gregem adepti sunt Nam si Romani Episcopi immensam illam nullus limitibus circumscriptā autoritatē indulgentiae Principū acceptā ferrem voluntati Episcopali nihil voluntati divinae inimicum jubenti obtemperandū putem ob reverentiam Principi si volenti debitam c. So that the Defendant having thus plainly set down his minde before and knowing that all the jurisdiction that the Bishops in England now exercise over others is from the King he thought himself not onely secure from danger but expected favour at least from the Bishops and their helping hand especially when the opposing the Popes Authority in England is a thing that the King and State have ever so well allowed of And that this honourable Court may yet be farther informed of the speciall cause for which the Prelates are so displeased with the Defendant it was for the truely and narrowly disputing and discussing of the second question to wit whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop have Authority and Jurisdiction not onely over his fellow brethren but over Kings and Emperours which the Defendant there denyed for many warrantable Arguments the summe of which he desireth here to relate unto this honourable Court for his just and necessary defence and justification For by the very light of nature and unanswerable reason it is evident and manifest that where there is an equality parity amongst men there the one doth not exceed the other in power or Dominion Paris enim in Parem non esse imperium inter Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now Divine constitution hath made Bishops and Presbyters or Elders a like and equall which that it might the better appeare the Defendant propounded three things to be proved The first was that Bishops and Presbyters were by the Word of God one and the same Secondly That Presbyters had equall Authority of Government Ordination Excommunication with Bishops wherein only consists their preheminency and Authority above their brethren which things being proved it will necessarily follow That the Pope of Rome as he is Bishop doth no way exceed other Bishops and Presbyters they being in all things alike and equall unto him much lesse hath any Authority and power over Kings and Emperours And for the proofe of the first position the words Presbyter and Bishop do sufficiently evince it which is holy Scripture though diverse in sound signifie one and the same thing as not to cite the words themselves which would be large The Apostle Paul to Titus in the first Chapter doth sufficiently shew where the words Bishop and Presbyter are confounded And likewise in the first Epistle of Peter and the fift Chapter there Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing And the Epistle to the Philippians the first Chapter and the first verse doth apparently demonstrate it and divers other places might be produced dilucidating the same thing But the 20. of the Acts puts all out of controversie where Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing for office honour and function so that the idenity of their office is signifyed by those two expressions Neither is there a confusion of their names with a difference still of their functions and administrations as some would cavill for in these places where Presbyters are called Bishops the disputation is not about the title but about the office signified and specified by the title For when Saint Paul exhorts the Presbyters to have an eye to their duty and charge he useth this reason that the Holy Ghost hath made them Bishops and the truth of this is so evident that the Rhemists themselves as learned men as any Bishops in England and as able to maintaine an error are forced ingeniously to confesse it saying in expresse words in their Notes upon the 28. vers of that Chapter That in the Apostles times there was no difference between Presbyter and Bishop so that for the first position it is not onely by the Word of God clearly evident but by the very confession of the adversaries of the truth granted as a thing without controversie Now for proofe of the second position that Presbyters as well as the Bishop of Rome have the power and right of Government Ordination and Excommunication by which in these times Bishops onely exceed Presbyters the Defendant will here briefly demonstrate it referring those of this honourable Court that have a desire to search into the full truth of it to his book And for the proofe that the Government was committed unto them and that they exercised the same it is most perspicuous out of the first of Timothie 5. where the Apostle saith the Presbyters that rule well are worthy of double honour especially those that labour in Word and Doctrine By this testimony it is evident that they had rule and government in their hands And that they had power also of Ordination and imposition of hands it is likewise apparent out of the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy the first Chapter For the Apostle speaking to Timothy saith Do not neglect the gift that is in thee which is given thee for prophesie by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery Here also the Presbyters had the right of imposition of hands And that they had the power of Excommunication and Absolution it is likewise manifest from the fifth of the 1. of the Corinthians and the second Chapter of the second Epistle where the Apostle gives them the power of casting the incestrous person out and upon his repentance receiving of him in againe By all which Authorities of Sacred Writ it is sufficiently cleare and evident That the Presbyters had the Authority and power of Government and rule in the Church with the faculty also and ability of Ordination and Excommunication and all this by Divine institution and expresse words of holy Scripture howsoever this right and their due was through the fraud and deceit of the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops afterwards taken away from the Presbyters Wherefore the Defendant concluded That if there were any difference between Presbyters and the Bishop of Rome which he denied that then the Presbyters in dignity and honour exceeded and that greatly the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops for all these Priviledges of government Ordination and Excommunication are in formall words given unto the Presbyters and no where granted unto the Bishops And for farther illustration and proofe of this the Defendant