Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	ordination_n	power_n	presbyter_n	3,665	5	10.0489	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26948	Mr. Richard Baxter's last legacy in select admonitions and directions to all sober dissenters.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1697 (1697)	Wing B1297_VARIANT; ESTC R25271	57,203	76

and the Bishops were the most Godly Faithful Peaceable company of Bishops since the Apostle's times In Preface to the Second Plea we offered Arch-Bishop Usher's Model and when his Majesty would not grant us that he prescribed the Episcopacy of England as it stood with little Alteration this we joyfully and thankfully accepted as a hopeful means of a common Conformity and Concord See more p. 3. of his Apology and p. 161. I shewed that there are in Directory p. 832. such general Officers in the Church as an Army that is headed by the general himself and a Regiment by the Colonel and a Troophy a Captain there was no parity then in the Church-Officers In the Preface to the Five Disputations p. 9. Two sorts of Episcopacy are allowed first such as St. Hierome says were brought into the Church for a Remedy against Schism the Bishop of this Constitution was to preside over Presbyters and without him nothing was to be done in the Church that was of Moment S. 58. of Church Hist The Second is that which succeeds the Apostles in the ordinary parts of Church-Government while some Senior Pastors have the care of Supervising many Churches as the Visitors had in Scotland and are so far Episcopi-Episcoporum having no constraining Power of the Sword But a Power to admonish and instruct the Pastors and to Regulate Ordinations Synods and all great and common Circumstances that belong to Churches For if there were one Form of Government in which some Pastors had such extensive Work and Power as Timothy Titus and the Evangelists had as well as Apostles we must not change it without Proof that Christ himself would have it changed Many wise Men think that the Presbyterians rejecting all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches headed by National Assemblies are divisive and unwarrantable as their making by the Scots Covenant the renouncing of Episcopacy to be the test of National Concord was divisive Page 72. of the Third Defence Part the last Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hoper Jewel Davenant Usher Moreton Abbot Hall Potter Charleton were all Pious as well as Learned Bishops and so were many Conformist Ministers Sibs Preston Fenner Bolton Whately Dent Crook Pike Stock Stoughton Taylor c. My Judgment is that a Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal Judgment is much to be desired and earnestly endeavoured If it be Objected that he calls the Bishops their Silencers and Persecutors p. 104. of his Apology he says no Bishops have Silenced us by Spiritual Government that we know of but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which some of them gave their Votes for Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth all did not As for Bishops viz. a Diocesan ruling all the Presbyters but leaving the Presbyters to rule the People and consequently taking to himself the sole or chief power of Ordination but leaving censures and absolution to them except in case of Appeal to himself I must needs say that this sort of Episcopacy is very ancient and hath been for many Ages of very common reception through a great part of the Church And if I lived in a place where this government were established and managed for God I would submit thereto and live peaceably under it and do nothing to the disturbance disgrace or discouragement of it You may see how far Mr. Vines and Mr. Baxter did agree in the notion of a Bishop over many Presbyters Of which Grotius in his Commentary on the Acts and particularly chap. 17. saith that as in every particular Synagogue many of which were in some one City in Jerusalem 480. there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such was the Primitive Bishop And doubtless the first Bishops were over the community of Presbyters as Presbyters in joynt relation to one Church or Region which Region being upon the increase of Believers divided into more Churches and in after-times those Churches assigned to particular Men yet he the Bishop continued Bishop over them still For that you say he had a negative Voice that is more then ever I saw proved or I think ever shall for the first 200 Years and yet I have laboured to enquire into it That makes him Angelus Princeps not Angelus Praeses as Dr. Reinolds saith Calvin denies that and makes him Consul in Senatu or as a Speaker in the House of Parliament which as I have heard that D. B. did say was but to make him foreman of the Jury As touching the Introduction of ruling Elders such as are modelled out by Parliament my judgment is sufficiently known I am of your Judgment in the point There should be such Elders as have power to Preach as well as Rule On this Mr. Baxter reflects p. 353. Though Mr. Vines here yield not the negative Voice to have been de facto in the first or second age nor to be de jure yet he without any question yielded to the stating of a President durante vitâ if he prove not unworthy which was one point that I propounded to him and I make no doubt but he would have yielded to a voluntary consent of Presbyters de facto not to ordain without the President And the difficulties that are before us de facto in setting up a Parochial Episcopacy which he mentioneth I have cleared already in these Papers shewing partly that the thing is already existent and partly how more fully to accomplish it The Instances which he gives are in the Episcopacy of the Protestant Churches in Poland from Adrian Regenvolscius Hist Eccles Sclavon l. 3. p. 424. N. B. Whereas from the first Reformation of the Churches in the Province of the lesser Polonia it hath been received by Use and Custom that out of the Elders of all those Districtus Divisions which are 36 in Number one Primate or Chief in Order who is commonly called Superintendent of the Churches of lesser Poland and doth preside over the Provincial Synods be chosen by the Authority Consent and Suffrage of the Provincial Synod and that he be inaugurated and declared not by imposition of Hands to avoid the suspicion of Primacy and the appearance of Authority and Power over the other Elders only by Benediction and fraternal Prayers and by reading over the Offices which concern this Function and the Prayers of the whole Synod for the sake of Government and good Order in the Church of God c. The other instance is of the Churches of the Bohemian Confession who have among the Pastors of the Churches their Conseniors and Seniors and one President over all related by the same Regenvolscius p. 315. The Elders or the Superintendents of the Bohemian and Moravian Churches c. are for the most part chosen out of their Fellow-Elders and are Ordained and Consecrated to the Office of Seigniory by Imposition of Hands and Publick inauguration c. Mr. Baxter dislikes our Species of Diocesan Bishops because of their Chancellors which is very groundless for the power of Legislation the