Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	bishop_n	church_n	ordain_v	4,727	4	9.0001	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41074	Lex talionis, or, The author of Naked truth stript naked	Fell, Philip, 1632 or 3-1682.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1676 (1676)	Wing F644; ESTC R20137	30,835	44

Presbytery Well I have read over the Epistle and as our Author says wonder but it is at his great confidence to say that there is nothing to be met with in it to found a distinction between Episcopacy and Presbytery when as he expresly reserves the power of Ordination peculiarly to the Bishops which is the point chiefly contested between the Assertors of Episcopacy and Patrons of Presbyterian parity As to the second desire that the Reader should observe the various fate of St. Jerom and Aerius that the one is reviled as an Heretick the other passes for a Saint I will satisfie my Author in that particular and shew him a plain reason for it Aerius set himself against the Apostolical Government by Bishops dogmatized and separated himself from the Church St. Ierom always obeyed his Governours and remained in Communion with them upon other occasions exprest his opinion in behalf of their Authority And here only in a private Epistle to a Friend and that a very short one being scandalized at an unseasonable opinion which pretended Deacons to be equal in dignity to Priests as it is usual in such cases he depresses what he can the Order of Deacons and exalts to his utmost that of Priests in the mean time does not so much as attempt to prove any thing more than barely saying Quid aliud facit Episcopus excepta Ordinatione quod non facit Presbyter What does a Bishop more than a Presbyter besides Ordaining And then reckoning up several actions common to both Our kind-hearted Author hereupon tells us that this presently converted him nay as if this good nature of his were as meritorious as grace he thereupon assures himself that great is his reward in heaven Our man of learning with his accustomed dexterity and confidence runs down the business of Colluthus his Ordination of Priests and pities poor Bishop Hall for going about to prove from thence that Presbyters were not capable to Ordain How slightly soever our Author thinks of the matter Socrates in the first Book of his History puts it under the blackest Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He privately adventured on an action worthy of many deaths who having never been ordained a Priest did those things which belonged to the Function of a Priest This you are to know was said of Ischryas who had as good Orders as Colluthus a Priest could give him but yet antecedently to the Decree of the Council of Alexandria is declared never to have been ordained a Priest Let up now see why the old man was so much to be pitied because he had quite forgot that the famous Council of Nice consisting of above three hundred Bishops had made a Canon wherein they declare that if any Bishop should Ordain any of the Clergy belonging to another Bishops Diocess without consent and leave had of that Bishop to whose Diocess they did belong their Ordination should be null You see the irregular Ordination of a Bishop is as null as the irregular Ordination of a Presbyter Therefore the irregular Bishop and the irregular Presbyter are of the same Order of the same Authority neither able to Ordain Our Author according to his usual Sagacity knows no difference betwixt an Act that is null and void in it self and an Act voided by Law There is no question but Bishops and Priests and Deacons for their Crimes may be degraded and deposed but that is not the same thing with the never having been Bishops Priests or Deacons The Council of Alexandria declared the Ordinations of Colluthus to have been void ab initio that of Nice voids those that are irregular Surely these are very different matters That the invalidity of the Ordination in the later case was of this kind that is made invalid by way of Penalty and Sentence we may learn from the thirty fifth Apostolick Canon by which both Zonaras and Balsamon interpret this of Nice who decree that in case of ordaining in anothers Diocess the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both he be deposed and they who were ordained by him And truly if they were to be deposed it is plain the Orders were in themselves valid and it is unquestionable that the Ordaining Bishops were so which is not to be said and can never be proved of a mere Presbyters And therefore the Triumph which is added here of dashing out the indelible Character or that the Line of a Diocess is a Conjurers Circle might very fairly have been laid aside And I appeal to the Reader and more than hope he will see how no proofs are brought for this Identity and parity of Order no Scripture no Primitive Council no general consent of Primitive Doctors and Fathers that he is perfectly out in every thing he avers and therefore for his poor judgment he may do well to keep it to himself and probably his Judgment is so poor because he himself is rich He in likelihood has imployed his time in Secular Concerns which had it been spent in Study would have rescued him from such gross misadventures as he at every turn incurrs But though the matter stand thus plain bef●re us yet ●ince our Author has had the confidence to cite the Council of Nice in proof of the nullity of irregular Orders to shew with greater evidence his perpetual ignorance and mistake I will throw in for vantage the proceeding of this very Council in the Case of Meletius who had usurpt upon the rights of Peter Patriarch of Alexandria in the point here contested of Ordaining within his Diocess the words of Theodoret are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He invaded the Ordinations belonging to the other Now the Council decreed herein that Meletius should be suspended from the future exercise of his function and retain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bare name of a Bishop but do no Act of his Function either in the City or Villages but the Orders conferred by him were as to their intrinsick validity ratified and acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those already Ordained should Communicate and Officiate but come after the Clergy of each Church and Parish 'T is to be wondered at how this man who seems to have always lived in a hollow Tree came to have heard by chance that there was once such a thing in the World as the Council of Nice To the Chapter of Deacons OUr Author is resolved on all occasions to shew that he thinks himself wiser then both the Church and State and therefore in defiance unto both he attempts to prove that Deaconship is not Holy Orders and to bring about so g●n●rous a d●sign he makes nothing of st●●ining a point with the Scripture since t is so unkind as to stand in his way It so happen'd that Petavius discoursing of Deacons had said what the Contents of our English Bibles and Commentators generally agre● in that P●ilip the Deacon Preacht did Miracles and Baptiz'd and Converted the City of Samari● and that the History describ'd Act. 8. belongs to

of the most eminent Propagators of the Christian Faith and at this time when Arianism entred the World merited this Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It continues to our times and is celebrated for persons powerful in the Word and study of Divine things What then could be the matter that should hare and lead a poor innocent man into such a Maze of falsehoods Why surely no more than this He had heard from the Parson of the Parish or some other good body in discourse that the Arian Heresie took its rise from Alexandria that it supported it self much with quirks of Philosophy and Sophistical Nicities and that there was a Divinity-School at Alexandria and a notable man one Pantenus had been Master of it and now if this were put together and all the Heresies of the world laid upon the back of this Pantenus and School-Divinity it would make a very pretty story and look like a learned account of Antiquity Just as if a stranger sho●ld have heard that there was a mischievous fanatical Rebellion which overr●n the whole Nation and was the cause of the destruction of so many tho●sands of Christians both body and soul fomented and carried on at Westmi●ster in England and likewise that there was a famous School and one Dr. Lambert Osbaston a noted man had been Master of it and then should tack all this together and say that Westminster School was a Seminary of Fanaticism and Rebellion and that Dr. Lambert Osbaston was the first and chief Promoter of it Now this ridiculous Fable is far more probable than that which our Author obtrudes upon us in that several of the Ringleaders in the la●e Rebellion as Sir Arthur Haslerig Sir Harry Vane Scot and others were really Scholars to Dr. Osbaston and Governours of that School nothing of which nature can be truly suggested of the other But our Author goes on and has certainly made a Vow not to say one true word in this whole Paragraph and keeps it most religiously His following period runs thus The Heresies before thi● were so gross and sensual that none took them up but dissolute or frantick people and soon vanisht But after this School-subtil way of arguing was brought into Christianity Heresie grew more refined and so subtil that the plain pious Fathers of the Church knew not how to lay hold of it c. But now what will become of us if there were refined and spiritual Heresies before Nay in a manner if this very Heresie were so What if they were followed by men neither dissolute nor frantick nor did soon vanish And that the Fathers of the Church were not so plain men but that they knew how to encounter this School-Divinity Monster Has not our Author the worst luck of any man that ever put Pen to Paper As to the sensuality and grossness of Heresie no● to look higher than the confines of this Age we talk of surely neither Novatianism nor the Heresie of Sabellius or Paulus Samosatenus of which Arianism was but an off-set were gross or sensual Nor were Novatus Tatian Tertullian and Origen who were all very considerable men and fell into Heresie before this time ever noted for being frantick or dissolute people But on the contrary their very severity of life and zeal for Vertue were the prime occasion of their Heresies Nor did their Heresies soon vanish but continued for several Ages some in their own others under new names and titles And whosoever reads the Controversies of those times will find that the pious Fathers of the Church were not quite baffled by School-distinctions and evasions nor did these Sophisters proud of their conquest triumph and carry away a specious appearance of truth But the advantage of Arius was quite of another kind in application and address 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was of taking and pleasant conversation always glozing and flattering as Epiphanius tells us then adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He addrest to each particular ●ishop with insinuating arts and flatteries whereby he drew in many to be Partizans with him And as Sozom●n expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Party finding it their interest to prepossess in their behalf the Bishops of each City they sent their ●gents to them with confessions of their Faith .... w●●●h practice turned mightily to their advantage But th●●r chief advantage lay in their Court insinuations first with Constantines Sister during his life and after with Constantius his Sons after his death and when the Aria●s had the suffrage of an Emperour on their side we need not imp●te it to Sophistry that they prevailed Our Author having not as he thinks fully enough discovered to us the mysteries of his knowledge goes on with the same ausp●ces of Ignorance and Error to acquaint us farther That this great bane of the Church took its rise from hence Many of the Primitive Doctors and Fathers being converted from Heathenism and having by lo●g and great industry acquired much knowledge in natural Philosophy Antiquity His●ory and subtil Logick or Sophistry were very unwilling to abandon quite these their long studied and dearly beloved Sciences falsly so called and therefore translated them into Christianity c. And now we know perfectly the true cause of all the Heresies that ever came into the Church I will adventure notwithstanding all this to add one more to the number and say in opposition to what is here averred that Christianity received more advantage from Philosophy than ever it did damage from it It is true as Tertullian tells us that the Philosophers were the Patriarchs of Hereticks but it is as true they were the Champions of Christian truth He must be a stranger to every thing that relates to the Church who know not how much Religion ows to Iustin Mart●r Athenagoras Ammonius Pantenus Clemens of Alexandria and notwithstanding all his misadventures to Origen himself The last and most dangerous attempt against Christianity was the setting up Heathen Morality gilded over with Magick against Christian Ethicks laboured by Apollonius Tyanaeus Porphyry Iamlichus Plotinus Hierocles Simplicius and several others And had not the good providence of God raised up the before mentioned and other eminent Christian Philosophers to attaque them in their strengths and fight them with their own Weapons it is to be feared our holy Faith would not have had so easie or so clear a victory over the World But because our Author has so particular a Pique against Sophistry I shall desire him at his leisure to read the twenty ninth Chapter of the seventh Book of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History the Title of which Chapter is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How Paulus Samosatenus baffled and confuted by one Malchion a Priest who had been a Sophister was deposed And sure the Sophister may be allowed to have done no small service who baffled and confuted that so considerable Heretick But the stop put to the Donatists Schism by the interposition of

Laws I cannot but reflect that surely he lives in a Country where the Bishop is not over-diligent in his duty else he would never make the task to be so impossible unless the Bishop never comes into his Diocess or never stir any where abroad in it surely a very little contrivance with the diligence of the Ministers would make it possible both for the Bishop and Youth to meet together without much trouble to either There is no doubt if the affair be adjourned over to the Triennial Visitation 't is not likely to be well done but as this ought not to be the course so thanks be to God it is not The next inconvenience in the present Constitution is the disability of the Curat to fit for Confirmation and the little credit to be given when he assures the Bishop when he presents the Children that they are fully instructed for it and therefore he concludes it necessary to appoint some discreet conscientious Ministers in the several Circuits to examine and Licence for the Lords Table for he passes it for granted that Confirmation is no Sacrament and if it were why may not Priests not Bishops perform it Well but suppose these discreet conscientious Ministers that are to supply the place of the Parochial ones should not be better qualified be more discreet or conscientious then them as it may very probably happen t is plain they cannot have those opportunities either to instruct the Youth of each Parish or know they are instructed as the local Minister is furnisht with but then farther is it likely that the several Parochial Ministers will readily admit their neighbour Minister whom they may reasonably think not much wiser or better then themselves to meddle in their Cures or that the people will be contented with it Will not animosities and quarrels and contempt of the duty certainly follow As to the lawfulness of Priests and not Bishops performing it upon the supposal that Priests and Bishops are the same thing and that Priests may Ordain which is the Doctrine taught in one of the preceding Chapters this of Priests ●onfirming may ●easonably enough be admitted but the falseness of that imagination being abundantly evident the absurdity of this will necessarily follow And therefore notwithstanding our Authors project Bishops may do well to go on in the Execution of their Duty in this most Ancient and Useful Right in which from the first Planting of the Gospel to this moment they have been in possession They who of late invaded the power of Ordaining Priests having been so modest yet as not to usurp this part of the Episcopal Office As to the expedients proposed about framing additions to the Catechism making Paraphrases on the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments regulating the Ministers way of Catechising and enforcing Parents and Masters to bring their young people to be Catechis'd I shall only say that if every body in the Nation who is as wise as our Author shall be allowe'd to make Models for the Church we shall have almost as many Schemes of Government as there are persons to be Governed In the mean time we will take old Cato's rule and be well pleased with the State of things as it stands at present The next p●que is at the bounds of each Bishops Diocess and having told a Story of Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch Ierusalem Ephesus Corinth and Philippi which sound big and look well in the Inventory he informs us that partly by great distances of Citys partly by the favour of former Princes several Towns being cast into one Diocess they became so large as t is impossible any one Bishop should have a sufficient inspection into them the Bishop knows not the names nor faces of half a quarter of them much less their behavior he may have as well a part of France in his Diocess to Govern Our Author never considers where his argument will light is it possible to Govern three Kingdoms nay are they therefore happy because entire and under one Government Is there no manner of need why the Prince should know the names of the Aldermen in his Metropolis much less of the people in his Dominions and is it so impossible a thing to comprehend all the necessary interests of an Episcopal Diocess The truth is our Author would make every Parish-Priest a Bishop and then the Diocess will be little enough and the Revenues of the Bishops will be needless things and as he says the greedy Harpyes will readily make use of his zealous intentions but I pray let us make a parallel to his Ecclesiastial Policy in the Civil State There are a certain sort of men made Iudges in the several Circuits of England which Circuits are many of them Fifty Six●y an Hundred or more Miles in Compass they know not the name or faces of half or a quarter of them much less of their behavior they may as well have a part of France in their Circuit Were it not therefore better that every Lord of the Leet should distribute Justice in the Precincts of his Mannor that no man should be at the expence of seeing Councel taking out Writs or of going to the Shire-Town or vamping upon the Hoof with shooes at back to Westminster-Hall but the Steward of the Court who knows the name and face and concern of every one should dispatch all things and doubtless this would make a happy World The Parish would quickly find the advantage of this new Scheme to have their Estates their Lives and Fortunes in ●he hand of a little Attourny and be all together by the Ears and have none to part them but him whose interest it is to set them on I need not set down the Moral Thus mad is the Ecclesiastical Policy of our Divinity-Common-Wealths-man t is no very good account of time to write an Vtopia a Politick Romance but to play tricks in Holy things and set on foot a Christian Oceana is an unpardonable fault But our Author proceeds to consider a second abuse in Church Government which is exempt Iurisdictions Whatever a man thought of the unexpedience of any thing Establisht by Law surely in good manners he should not give it ill Language and call it an abuse while it stood so Authorized and supported Which should be done especially by him who has past a solemn promise of not speaking a word against the known Laws of the Land But of all men in the World our Author whose business it is to make all the Parishes in England peculiars and have them straitned to the narrow limits which admit the knowing every name and face should not speak against exempt Jurisdictions for if the whole Nation were so Cantoned out and we had ten thousand Bishops in England we had exactly the Scheme which he recommends and at the same time complains of It seems my Author may freely write against what is Establisht in Church and State as having obtained an exempt Jurisdiction from the power of both