Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35698	Some remarks recommended unto ecclesiasticks of all perswasions	Denton, William, 1605-1691.	1690 (1690)	Wing D1068; ESTC R14	74,373	48

have usurped and monopolized it to themselves Histories are full and plain It is no less worthy of our observation That the Diocesses or the Provinces of the Pastors and Teachers whether Bishops or Presbyters of the several congregated Churches did not extend beyond one Church one Altar or one Parish i. e. such a Number of Christians as might all assemble and meet to Confer Hear and Communicate one with another for mutual Edification so that every Bishop or Presbyter might take Cognizance of every Man's Life and Conversation and of the Spiritual state of every individual Soul of such congregated Churches And One hundied and fifty Souls were thought by St. Chrysostom and others as many as one Pastor could well and more than he could without great labour discharge v. his Homil. in Ignat. Paulinus Bishop of Tyre in Constantine's time had but so many under his Episcopal charge as the Panegerist in Eusebius informs us as he could take a Personal notice of their Souls and accurately examine the inward state of every one acquainting himself throughly with the condition of all those Souls that were committed to him As Christ's Church and Kingdom excelleth and differeth from all the Kingdoms of the World so doth its Government because it was to be gathered and established in all other Kingdoms accursed Enemies thereunto therefore Heavenly Wisdom it self appointed and ordained such a Government for his Church as it might exercise in any Nation by its own Spiritual Laws without the help of human Mixtures Superstructions or Politicks and without interfering with their Government or with their Laws or prejudicing their Civil Rights What alterations or additions have been made to this Government in any Nation that Nation hath thereby as much as in them lies reproached that Wisdom which is from above and pure and out of the proud conceits of their own Wisdom and Politicks and out of their own covetous and ambitious Projects and out of the mean conceits of the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel have scorned to subscribe and submit to Gods own Appointment not contenting themselves to be Servants and Ministers of the Church as Christ himself and as the Apostles were but will be Masters Lords Dukes Marquisses Earls Princes Judges Cardinals Pontiffs what not over their Flocks and over all the Kingdoms of the World whereby they demonstrated their own Wisdom and Politicks to be Earthly Sensual Divellish As if Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge did not know what Government was fittest and best for his Church and Kingdom who chose to establish it not by high and mighty Powers Princes Potentates and Pontiffs but by mean and inconsiderate Persons Fishermen Tent-makers and the like to magnifie the Power of his Grace and thereby to confound the Wisdom of the Worldly Wise But so it shall not be among you but whoever shall be great among you shall be your minister And whoever shall be chiefest shall be servant of all For even the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mark 10.43 44 45. To this Government Christ inseparably and indispensably annexed this great Prerogative and Priviledge viz. Liberty of Preaching and Propagating his Gospel to all Nations when he said Go teach all nations c. and that beyond all contradiction of any Person or Power whatsoever King or Pontiff with a command that Kings should be their Nursing Fathers What were they but the Chief Priests Scribes and Elders that questioned Christ Prince of all the Kindoms of the earth Rev. 1.5 and to whom God had given the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 when he Taught in the Temple and Preached the Gospel by what Authority he did those things and who it was that gave him that authority Luke 20.1 2. And did not Christ disdain to give them a satisfactory Answer as Persons medling with that they had nothing to do with all And are not those in our Days as sawcy and insolent as those proud Priests of old were who endeavour to muzzle the Mouths of those that should tread out their Corn and bring forth the food of Life unto the People and that for things only indifferent no ways Essential to Salvation And not only so but Persecuting them by Suspensions depriving them of their Liberty Maintenance and Benefit by Mulcts Imprisonment c. Plagues little inferior to those of the Hellish Inquisition a Sin as National as Drinking Drabbing Swearing or the like and requires as National Publick and Solemn Humiliation for it as for those other Crimes In the Days of Edward the VI. and Queen Elizabeth the Dissenters of those times insisted mainly That no Reformation of Church Discipline and Government could be perfect unless reduced to that state it was in in the Apostles Days This the Wisdom of those times thought neither possible nor certain nor absolutely convenient because what was used in those Times the Scripture fully declareth not so that making their Times the Rule and Canon of Church-Polity is to make a Rule which being not possible to be fully known is as impossible to be fully observed So Judicious Hooker However let us trace those Times as far as we can Without all peradventure and beyond all contradiction Christ knowing that his Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Jews and Gentiles Heathens Publicans and Sinners by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosoms of Kingdoms avowed and accursed Enemies to his Gospel he therefore gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where Publish and Exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Commonwealth or Kingdom being any where therein concerned in Goods or Persons by virtue of that Spiritual Regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them liable The Documents Powers and Directions are recorded sparsim in the Gospel but more particularly in the 18th of Matth. viz. If thy Brother transgress against thee what then go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother but if he will not hear thee what then then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them what then tell it to the Church i. e. to that whole congregated Church or Assembly whereof thou and he are Members what then if he neglect to hear them let him be to thee as an Heathen or Publican i. e. pursue him in the Courts of Civil Judicature as thou wouldst any other that is not a Christian i. e. as a Publican or Heathen or any other wrong doer not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them as not being worthy the Name and Profession of Christians which

to other Churches where they were received as their own Clergy and sometimes when some Minister of their own died a stranger if eminently worthy succeeded in his Ministry and was then said to be Incardinated whereas he that was first exalted to an Office was said to be Ordinated or Ordained but he who was disposessed of his own and provided with another was called Incardinated This began in Italy Hence in process of time came Cardinals from Parish Priests to be now equal to Kings and had their maintenance out of the common Stock accordingly of which there were Episcopi Cardinales Presbyteri Cardinales Rome and Ravenna being then the richest Churchs received most of the eminent strangers and therefore they had most Cardinals and they chose the most eminent Men strangers and were called Cardinals In Rome the name remains to this Day in Ravenna it lasted until 1543 and then was taken away by Paul the Thid. It is wonderful to see how from such a low beginning they have grown to such an excessive height even from that which had neither Degree nor Order in the Church but brought in by chance or rather by Clergy-craft and subtilty is raised to be so Supreme in the Church as we see it now a days Aequiparantur Regibus was the common saying of the Court Innocent the Fourth Anno 1244 gave them the red Hat and Paul the Second gave them the red Cap the Regulars excepted which was also granted to them by Gregory the Fourteenth Tho' at first none were Ordained without a Title which continued until a little before the Year 500 yet afterwards the Bishops Ordained without a Title or any Office and therefore without Benefice which sort of Clergy in progress of time grew so excessively numerous that thence arose a Multitude of Indecencies Irregularities and Scandals which did more especially arise from the desire of many to become Clergy men for increase of their Livelihood and to enjoy the Exemptions granted by Princes the other from ambitious Prelates desiring to have a multitude of Subjects whom they might command which disorder yet remains and makes the People loose their great Respect for Religion and their Charity Before the Council of Trent such Bishops swarmed but now much lessened Tho' so great Inconveniences and Irregularities arose by Ordaining without a Title yet the Jesuits will have it that the Pope may Ordain without any Title either true or feigned whereby the Reverence to that Order hath abated in respect to that it had when Ecclesiastical Orders were only Ordained to Offices for which reason all them resided and dwelt upon their Charges which could not be left vacant there being none to supply them all being occupied in their own Likewise the distinctions of Benefices Compatibile Incompatabile found out only to cheat the World was then unknown whether fatter or leaner the Possessor was obliged to serve it personally without Unions Reserves Commenda's and Devices found out only by Clergy Craft to avoid the old and best Canons and to bring all into the Popes Power There were many Provisions made by divers Princes to prevent the many Abuses occasioned by the Ambitious and Covetous Clergy but all in vain Clergy-craft quickly found out Distinctions and Subtilties and coined Evasions to avoid both Canons and Laws made for Redress of such and other Abuses which were before the Year 800. About which time Charlemagn having reduced under his Obedience Italy France and Germany reformed in some measure the Abuses in Ecclesiastical Affairs reducing them to an Uniformity which in divers places have been variously used renewing many of the old Canons and Councels worn out of use by Clergy Craft and making of Ecclesiastical Laws for the distribution of Benefices as they ought and partly restored unto the Parishes the Possessions which the Bishops had usurped unto themselves Ordaining that every Priest should have a sufficient Benefice according to that saying Beneficium datur propter officium He restored also to the Monks that Power of chusing their own Abbot He Established also That the Bishops ought to Ordain those Priests who were presented by the People of the Parishes He Established also the Pope of Rome in like manner as he had been instituted when the Emperors of the East had the Dominion over Rome viz. That the Pope should be Elected by the Clergy and the People and the Decree of the Election should be sent to the Emperour upon whose Approbation the elected was consecrated but to the Honour of the Clergy be it remembred there was never any Law made to remedy any of their Abuses but they soon found out a way to evade them About this time the Custom of giving Tythes unto Parish-Churches passed out of France over into Italy which soon were abused as well as other Provisions made by the free-will Offerings of the Faithful and so are to this Day But what should I say more of their Abuses in other things as of Abbies and Abbots Monkery and Monasteries Annates universally reputed grievous and condemned yet justified by some their Arms Spiritual Expectancies or Reversions Benefices Pluralities Comenda's Unions Reservations Cardinals Coajutorship Decretals Donations Elelection of Popes Priests Bishops and Deacons Exemptions Mendicants Regresses Indulgences Quindeniums Investitures Reserves Pensions plentitude of Power Non-obstante's Devolution Canons Dominion of Goods Ecclesiastical Resignations Renuntiations Alienations Reservations Symony Vacancies Titles of Dukes Marquisses and Earls given to Bishops c. but that the Clergy in those times did abuse that Power they had in the Gospel endeavouring rather to acquire Empire Grandeur and Temporal Estates by any indirect means than with Paul to have made the Gospel of Christ without charges by preaching the Gospel willingly A woe always attending the neglect thereof though they which minister about holy things ought to live of the things of the Temple and that they which wait at the Altar ought to be partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 16 17 18. It is an Observation of godly Men That in those times the Court would never be induced that a gainful Abuse should be abolished or corrected until it had prepared a greater and more profitable one So great Authority tends to no good because it appears thereby that almost all the Abuses have been introduced From hence proceeded the Commendums Pensions Regresses Unions Resignations Expectancies Reservations yearly Payments Quindeniums and other kinds which no Man defends The Government of the Church was first Democratical all the Faithful being present in the chiefest Councels and Deliberations Thus we see that all were present at the Election of Matthias unto the Apostleship and in the Election of the Six Deacons and when St. Peter received Cornelius a Heathen Centurion unto the Faith he gave an account of it to all the Church Likewise in the Councel celebrated in Jerusalem the Apostles the Priests and the Faithful Brethren were present and the Letters were written in the name of all the Three Orders