Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	apostle_n	church_n	time_n	1,048	5	3.6359	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02549	An humble remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament, by a dutifull sonne of the Church	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1641 (1641)	STC 12675; ESTC R210029	12,040	46

sound experience informe us that things indifferent or good having been by continuance and generall approbation well rooted in Church or State may not upon light grounds be pulled up But this holy calling fetches its pedegree higher even from no lesse then Apostolicall and therefore in that right Divine institution For although those things which the Founders and prime Governours of the Euangelicall Church did as men went no further then their own persons yet what they did as Apostles is of an higher and more sacred consideration and if as Apostolike men they did upon occasion enact some temporary things which were to die with or before them yet those things which they ordained for the succeeding administration of the Church which they should leave behinde them in all essentiall matters can be no otherwise construed then as exemplary and perpetuall Now if to this Text we shall adde the undoubted Commentary of the Apostles own practises and to this Commentary we shall super-adde the unquestionable glosse of the cleare practise of their immediate succeslors in this administration continued in Christs Church to this very day what scruple can remain in any ingenuous heart but if any one resolve to continue unsatisfied in spight of reason and all evidence of history and will wilfully shut his eies with a purpose not to see the light that man is past my cure and almost my pity The good God of heaven be mercifull to such a mis-zealous obstinacy Certainly except all histories all Authors faile us nothing can be more plain then this truth Out of them we can and doe shew on whom the Apostles of Christ laid their hands with an acknowledgement and conveyance of Imparity and Jurisdiction we shew what Bishops so ordained lived in the times of the Apostles and succeeded each other in their severall charges under the eies and hands of the then living Apostles We shew who immediately succeeded those immediate successors in their severall Sees throughout all the regions of the Christian Church and deduce their uninterrupted Line through all the following ages to this present day And if there can be better evidence under heaven for any matter of fact and in this cause matter of fact so derived evinceth matter of right let Episcopacy be for ever abandoned out of Gods Church But if these be as they are certain and irrefragable Alas what strange fury possesseth the minds of ignorant unstable men that they should thus headily desire and sue to shake off so sacred and well grounded an Institution But I hear what they say It is not the office of Episcopacy that displeases but the quality The Apostles Bishops and ours were two Theirs was no other then a parochiall Pastor a preaching Presbyter without inequalitie without any rule over his brethren Ours claims an eminent superiority whether in a distinct order or degree and a power of Ordination Jurisdiction unknown to the Primitive times Alas alas how good people may be abused by mis-information Heare I beseech you the words of truth and confidence If our Bishops challenge any other spirituall power then was by Apostolique Authority delegated unto and required of Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the seven Asian Churches some whereof are known to us by name let them be disclaimed as usurpers and if we doe not shew out of the genuine and undeniable writings of those holy men which lived both in the times of the Apostles and some yeares after them and conversed with them as their blessed fellow-labourers a cleare and received distinction both of the names and offices of the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as three distinct subordinate Callings in Gods Church with an evident specification of the duty and charge belonging to each of them Let this claimed Hierarchy be for ever hooted out of the Church And if the bounty of religious Princes have thought meet to grace this sacred function with some accession of titles and maintenance far be it from us to think that the substance and essentiall parts of that Calling is ought impaired or altered by such gracious munificence And although as the world goes these honors cannot ballance the contempt of those eminent places and that portion which is now made hereditary to the Church cannot in the most of these dignities after all deductions boast of any superfluity yet such as they are if any man have so little grace and power of selfe-government as to be puffed up with pride or transported to an immoderation in the use of these adventitious favours the sin is personall the calling free which may be and is managed by others with all humble sociablenesse hospitall frugality conscionable improvement of all meanes and opportunities to the good of Gods Church I may not yet dissemble that whiles we plead the divine right of Episcopacy a double scandall is taken by men otherwise not unjudicious and cast upon us from the usuall suggestions of some late Pamphleters The one that we have deserted our former Tenet not without the great prejudice of Soveraignty for whereas we were wont to acknowledge the deriving of our Tenure as in fee from the beneficent hand of Kings and Princes now as either proudly or ungratefully casting off that just dependence and beholdingnesse we stand upon the claime of our Episcopacy from a divine Originall The other that whiles we labour to defend the Divine right of our Episcopacy we seeme to cast a dangerous imputation upon those Reformed Churches which want that Government Both which must be shortly cleared The former had never been found worth objecting if men had wisely learned to consider how little incompatiblenesse there is in this case of Gods Act and the Kings both of them have their proper object and extent The office is from God the place and station and power wherein that office is exercised is from the King it is the King that gives the Bishoprick it is God that makes the Bishop Where was it ever heard of that a Soveraigne Prince claimed the power of ordaining a Pastor in the Church this is derived from none but spirituall hands On the other side who but Princes can take upon them to have power to erect and dispose of Episcopall Sees within their own Dominions It is with a King and a Bishop as with the Patron and the Incumbent The Patron gives the Benefice to his Clerk but pretends not to give him Orders That this man is a Minister he hath from his Diocesan that he is Beneficed he hath from his Patron Whiles he acknowledgeth his Orders from the Reverend hands of his Bishop doth he derogate ought from the bounty of a Patrons free presentation No otherwise is it with Episcopacy which thankfully professes to hold at once from God and the King Its calling of God its place and exercise of Jurisdiction of the King And if it be objected that both some former and Modern Divines both abroad and at home borrowing S. Ieromes phrase have held the superiority of Bishops