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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	live_v	sin_n	27,888	5	5.5903	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50109	The spiritual house in its foundation, materials, officers, and discipline describ'd the nomothetical & coercive power of the King in ecclesiastical affairs asserted the episcopal office and dignity, together with the liturgy of the Church of England vindicated in some sermons preached at St. Clement Danes and St. Gregories neer St. Pauls, London / by Geo. Masterson.	Masterson, Geo. (George)	1661 (1661)	Wing M1073; ESTC R30518	52,267	136

Congregation of Christians in all the World hath received and embraced the Episcopacy we contend for To this all the Fathers without exception of any one bear witness He among them who ascribes least to Episcopacy St. Jerom who was not a Bishop but a Presbyter of an inferiour Order whose Testimony therefore may stand in stead of many saith In toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus caeteris superponeretur ad quem omnis cura Ecclesiae pertineret It is universally decreed that one chosen from among the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom the whole care of the Church should appertain And that this was the universal Custom of the Church appears by this because those Hereticks who made a separation from the Church Catholick did yet retain this Order among them Thus the Authour of the Homilies upon St. Matthew Hereticks in their Schism have all those things among them which are proper to the true Church Similiter Ecclesias similiter Scripturas similiter Episcopos caeterosque Clericorum ordines They have their Congregations Scriptures Bishops and other Orders of the Clergy as the Church hath Aerius indeed in a Pang of indignation because he missed a Bishoprick which he stood for would have made himself equal to the Reverend Bishops by broaching this Doctrine Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia discerni debere That a Presbyter ought not to be distinguished by any difference from a Bishop but this errour of his was condemned by the whole Church When one wrote to St. Jerom Nihil interest inter Episcopum Presbyterum There is no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter he reproved him sharply in the Answer which he returned Hoc satis imperite This was not said for want of ignorance In portu ut dicitur naufragium you make shipwrack as they say Proverbially in the Haven Thirdly The Episcopacy under our present consideration is of venerable Antiquity in the Church having it's rise in the Apostles time In proof of which we can have no better Evidence then the Catalogue of Bishops in Irenaeus Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret who begin from the Age in which the Apostles lived Now no man can deny his assent to such Grave Authority so unanimously conspiring in matter of fact without incurring the guilt of singular irreverence and pertinacy It is as if one should deny that which all the Roman Histories affirm that the Consulship of Rome began from the Banishment of the Tarquins Will you hear St. Jerom Alexandriae a Marco Evangelista Presbyteri unum semper ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Ep. 85. The Presbyters of Alexandria ever since St. Mark the Evangelist having chosen one from among themselves and exalting him to an higher place stiled him Bishop St. Mark died in the eighth year of Nero about the year of our Lord 62. whose Successour St. John the Apostle yet living was Amianus to him succeeded Abilius to Abilius Cerdo After the Death of St. James Simon succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem After St. Peter's departure Linus Anacletus and Clement or as some St. Peter yet living sate in the Episcopal Chair at Rome as Evodius and Ignatius did at Antioch A Record of such Antiquity confirmed by Ignatius the Disciple of St. John cannot be rejected by any save such onely who have no Faith for any thing that themselves saw not Who may as well deny that ever there was a Philip of Spain or Lewis of France or Henry King of England as that the persons before mentioned were Bishops of their respective Sees Fourthly The Episcopacy we intend is approved by Divine Right or as Bucer expresseth it Visum Spiritui Sancto utinter Presbyteros unus cur am singularem gereret It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost that one among the Presbyters should have the especial care of the Church Of this we have an undeniable Argument in the book of the Revelations where we find Christ from Heaven commanding St. John to write unto the seven Angels of the Churches of Asia The Title of Angel may I acknowledg be applyed in a general signification to every particular Pastour or Presbyter But here it is manifest Christ intends one in each Church onely whom he stiles the Angel in a proper and peculiar sence For It is no ways probable that Churches so large of such vast extent as Ephesus Smyrna and the rest were had but one Pastour or Presbyter in each of them Nay it is certain and evident concerning Ephesus that in the days of St Paul there were many Presbyters ordained or constituted to feed the Church of God Acts 20.17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and said unto them verse 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock c. to feed the Church of God And we may as rationally conclude concerning the rest that there were many Pastours in each Church Why then should Christ direct his Epistle to one the Angel if there had not been one among them of a Superiour Function and more eminent Dignity Sub Angeli nomine saith St. Augustine Epist 162. laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae Under the name of the Angel he commends the Prefect of the Church Angelos Ecclesiis Praesidentes dixit Hierom By Angels he understands the Presidents of the Churches And for Smyrna Polycarpus was without controversie Bishop of it ordained by St. John as Bullinger himself acknowledgeth and Irenaeus saith of him l. 3. c. 3. Polycarpus non solum ab Apostolis eruditus c. Polycarp was not onely instructed by the Apostles and conversant with divers of those persons who saw our Lord in the flesh but in Asia he was constituted by the Apostles Bishop of the Church of Smyrna whom I saw saith the Father while I was a young man I wholly wave many other Evidences and descend to a late Protestant Writer Marlorat in locum St. John saith he mentions first the Church of Ephesus in respect of the dignity of the place Nec populum aggreditur sed Principem Cleri utique Episcopum And he doth not apply himself to the people but to the Principal of the Clergy to wit the Bishop And because the Authority of Mr. Beza and Doctour Reinolds may possibly go furthest with those who have no great friendship for the Episcopal Dignity let us in the Point in hand hear them To the Angel saith Beza id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem nimirum oportuit inprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum caeteros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam That is the President who first ought to be admonished and by him his Colleagues and so the whole Church Reinolds in his Conference with Hart c. 8. Sect. 3. saith Though there were in the Church of Ephesus many Presbyters and Pastours to Administer to that Church yet there was one ever those many whom our Saviour stiles the

be truly said of those with whom he convers'd reprobaverunt ad mortem mortem autem crucis they rejected him to death the death of reprobates the death that hath a curse annexed to it the death of the Cross they prosecuted him in their rage and fury till they brought him lapis ad lapidem into a grave of stone and then rolled a stone upon him and so left him dissallowed or reprobated with a witnesse But if he were a stone that is incapable of disgrace utterly unacquainted with sorrow it is neither sensible of what is spoke nor of what is done to it the tongue that casts it aside with reproach the hand that cuts and hews it doth it not affect it any thing at all It is true a stone indeed is insensible but Christ was a living stone a stone endud with life and sense a person very tender and sensible of the wounds they gave him with their tongues the reproaches taunts and scofs they cast upon him and of those likewise ef their hands he was sensible of the furrows which they made upon his back the whips the thornes the nayles and spear he was sensible of them all he endured all patiently as a stone but he felt it sensibly as a living stone witnesse two things 1. His passionate prayer Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me the cup of his passion it was the cup of red wine the cup of his Fathers displeasure and this prayer he repeats no lesse then three times Mat. 26.44 2 The apprehension he had of his ensuing sufferings which was so great that it cast him into that agony in which he sweat drops of blood Luk. 22.44 whereby he made good this compellation of a stone which use to give or sweat against rain or storms he could not but be sensible of the Tempest when it fell upon him who thus swet in the sense of it before it came and thus you see the third thing what entertainment he found he was dissallowed or reprobated But by whom was he thus dealt with That is the 4. Saint Peter saith in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of men of mean men it may be the multitude who know not the worth or valew of a stone Nay but they were the builders they who should know what stone is fit for every place so our Lord Christ Did you never reade in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner Mat. 21.42 and so Saint Peter This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders Acts 4.11 and the builders generally universally have any of the rulers or of the Pharises believed on him John 7.48 He among them who thought so well of himselfe as a chief master builder that he despised the rest as persons who knew nothing Caiaphas was positively and absolutely for the reprobating of him One of them named Caiaphas being the highpriest that same year said unto them ye know nothing at all nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man meaning Christ should die for the people John 11.49 50. Now lay these together and you have a sad account of the lot that befell Christ he was refused or dissallowed refused by the builders by the chiefe of them yea he was not onely dissallowed that is not afforded to be the head but he was reprobated not allowed any room in the building to be refused is not so much it may be more honour as the Tryers may prove to be rejected then approved by them but to be refused of builders who are presum'd to be skilfull and by the chiefe of them this is much indeed Againe to be dissallowed not admitted to the chief place this is not so much for there are other places in the building in which he might have been set with some reputation but to be wholly and absolutely reprobated not allowed any place but to be cast out among the rubbish this is hardly to be under gone and yet this was the lot of Christ he was dissallowed not by mensimply but by the builders the supposedly wisest men and that leads me to the 5. Particuler the aggration of their sin in dissallowing him 1. Because he was a living stone who hath life in himselfe even as the Father hath life in himselfe As the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given to the Son to bave life in himselfe John 5.26 a living stone who gives life to all others all kinds of life temporall spirituall eternall the life of nature grace and glory In him was life John 1.4 not in the Scocinians sense Quia Christus primus vitam aeternam caelestem annunciavit revelavit Smalcius because he first preached eternall life or life per meto nimiam pro vitae aeternae clarissimo nuntio Schlichtingius the most eminent Preacher of life but the meaning of the Text in him was life is originally radically as in the head or heart from whence it is communicated to all the members so that the rejecting disallowing or refusing of this living stone is being interpreted the refusing of life it selfe the choosing of death rather then life 2. Because he was chosen of God the reprobating of that which God hath elected is an high aggravation of sin because hereby the foolishnesse of man exalts it selfe against the wisedom of the onely wise God Had Christ been a stone accidentally or by chance assum'd by men had he been propounded for the advancement or carrying on of some politick designe he might have been disallowed without any eminent hazard but when God in infinite wisedome and upon mature deliberation hath made choice of him as the only proper foundation of mans happinesse he cannot be reprobated by any without adding many cubits to the stature of their transgression 3. Because he is precious that is truly and properly precious cujus exiguum alterius magnum exaequat a little of which compensats a great deal in other maters Christ is the pearl of price which the wise Merchantman sels all that he hath to purchase Christ is so precious that Saint Paul accounted his greatest priviledges his choisest services yea and all things but losse and dung in comparison of him Phil. 3.5 6 7 8. to reject therefore a thing or person so precious as Christ is is an exceeding high aggravation of their sin he was a living stone chosen of God and precious and yet disallowed of men Lay Christ then to improve this first general in a few words the foundation of your happinesse as he was design'd by the God of Heaven the Apostle tels you in the 1. to the Corinth 3. chap. 11 vers Other foundation can no man lay then that is layed which is Jesus Christ This is the rock upon which the wise builder erects his fabrick all others are but sandy foundations the House that is built upon them the expectation that men raise from them must fall in the