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	word_n	980	5	3.9234	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09952	The iudgement of a most reuerend and learned man from beyond the seas concerning a threefold order of bishops, with a declaration of certaine other waightie points, concerning the discipline and gouernement of the Church.	Bèze, Théodore de, 1519-1605.; Fielde, John, d. 1588.	1585 (1585)	STC 2021; ESTC S120819	15,412	46

THE IVDGEMENT OF A MOST REVEREND AND LEARNED MAN FROM BEYOND THE SEAS CONCERNING A THREEFOLD ORDER OF BISHOPS WITH A DECLARATION OF CERTAINE OTHER WAIGHTIE POINTS CONCERNING THE DISCIPLINE AND GOVERNEMENT OF THE CHVRCH THE IVDGMENT OF A MOST REVEREND AND LEARNED MAN FROM BEyond the seas concerning a threefolde order of Bishops with a declaration of certaine other waightie pointes concer-cerning the discipline and gouernement of the church We must needes make three bishops 1 Of God 2 Of man 3 Of the deuil A Bishop ordained of God or set vp by the law of God doth declare nothing els but their calling which by an other more speciall name are called Pastoures whome saieth Luke the holy Ghost hath appointed Etheto episcopon poykanein ten ecclesian tou theou Bishops to feede the Church of GOD. And either of these names of Pastour or of Bishop is proper to them in the newe Testament whereby the Apostle doeth distinguish them from Apostles Prophets and Euangelists which were callings to endure for a tyme Ephes 4. 11. and from Deacons 1. Tim. 3. and Phil. 1. 1. for otherwise they are euery where called Elders Paule doth call his Apostleship a Deaconship Rom. 11. 13. But they are called Bishops in regard of the sheepe committed vnto them as though a man should call them watchmen of ouerseers These now were one alone as where any church had but one Pastor or more if the Church had more then one And the meeting of them together ioyntly with their Elders whom Paule calleth gouernours of the other commō name ●eureuses Presbyte●ion called was the Eldership Their duetie was to attend on the worde and praier both publikely and priuately and in common to gouerne the Church as appeareth by many places of Scripture That the same were subiect to magistrates though prophane appeareth not onely by the example of Christ the high Priest and of the Apostles but also by the expresse wordes of Paul 1. Timoth 2. and Luke 12. 13. OF THE BISHOP THAT is of man THe Bishop that is of man that is to say brought into the Church by the alone wisedome of man besides the expresse word of God is a certain power giuen to one certaine Pastour aboue his other fellowes yet limited with certain orders or rules prouided against tyranny They which did beare this office of bishop are called bishops in regard of their fellow Elders and the whole clergie as watchmen set ouer the clergie That this calling was not brought in by the word it is manifest by that that there is not to be found in the new Testament so much as one syllable whereby there may be the least surmise of any such thing For although we doubt not but all thinges ought to be done orderly in the lordes house and therfore that some one should be president in euery assembly whom Iohn in the Reuelatiō seemeth to call the Angell of the Churches And Austen calleth the moderator Proestota yet this moderator of actiōs of the Church sauyng this one thing that he was the first in order in the cōpany had no authority ouer his felows neither did hee exercise any higher office Therefore the author of the epistle to the Hebrewes as Hierome noteth doeth cal the whole company of the elders Egoumenous Hebr. 13. gouernours not any one certayne man Such a one was Peter many times in the very assembly of the Apostles of a great authoritie surely amongst the Apostles who were all otherwise equall and yet he himselfe one of the company of the Apostles sent by his companions to Samaria with Iohn Act. 8. 14. and in the assembly giuing an account of his ministery to those which were of the Circumcision Acts 11. 2. But if any such bishoplike authoritie of any one aboue the rest as there was afterwardes had bin then surely the apostles would haue set down their names euen at that tyme in their letters which they sent from one to another especially seeing Paule in his epistle to the Philip. doth name bishops in the plural number and Deacons or there should haue bene at least some peculiar mention made of them Which seeing it is not done it appeareth that amongest these gouerners there was none in degree aboue their companions and fellow bishops but as occasion serued the Churches were gouerned by a fellowlike equal authoritie among the fellow-elders in their elderships he onely going before the rest whose godlines and authoritie the company did most allow of Epiphanius against the Arrians defending the contrary opinion namely the bishop ordained by man as ordained by God doth bring forth three reasons to the contrary Two as it were out of the word of God the third out of the history of those tymes The first place is 1. Tim. 5. 1. Rebuke not an Elder Presbyteron me ●peplexen● c. whereby he gathereth that Timothie had some authoritie ouer the Elders that is the Pastors of the church of Ephesus But be it spokē with the fauour of so woorthy a man hee should haue marked that here an elder is called he that is such by age not he that is a Pastor which is declared by the opposition next following of yong men 〈◊〉 reote … An other place is out of the same Epistle Receyue not an accusation agaynst an Elder the first of Timothie 5. 19. Whereby he gathereth that the Elders were subiect to the Bishops and tribunall seate But who will graunt hym that Timothie was Bishop of Ephesus For the history will easily re●ell that which the fathers doe report as certayne For no man can denie that Timothie was one that accompanied Paule and therefore no bishop assigned to any one certaine place who was sent one while to this place an other to that for the establishing of the Churches and finally that he was an Euangelist and not a bishop of any one certayne flocke I haue desired thee saieth hee to abide at Ephesus whilest I went into Macedonia And why so namely to looke to the Church which hee had begunne to establish vntill he were called for agayne which he doth in the other epistle What and did the Apostle robbe the Ephesians of their Bishop without asking their church at the least Surely when he went last to Ierusalem neuer mindyng to returne to Ephesus eyther he would haue restored Timothie vnto them or the Ephesians would haue required him agayne of the Apostle when hee put them in minde of so great danger at hand or if another were to be put into his roume hee would haue made expresse mention in that his diuine Sermon But he is sayd to haue sent for the Elders onely and to haue warned them of the duetie belongyng to them all Yet it need not seeme straunge to any that the Euangelist Timothie a man indued with so many and so great giftes remainyng at Ephesus did gouerne all thinges by his direction as one in degree aboue the Elders and by the Apostles authoritie

appointed there for a tyme. But let vs graunt Epiphanius more then this that Timothie had the authoritie of the laying on of handes out of these woordes of the Apostle Laye not handes sodainely vpon any Let vs graunt this too that these duties belōged to the gouernors yet we deny that Timothie could haue had any authoritie therefore ouer the Elders of Ephesus except he had bin an Euangelist For Paule himselfe Tim. 4. 14. doth shew sufficiently that the laying on of the hands was done in the name of the Eldership it selfe not by the authoritie of any superior Now the reasons of the same Epiphanius are these Bishops saieth hee begette the fathers of the Church but Elders the sonnes in asmuch as bishops and not Elders ordained bishops But what is this els then to aske to haue that which is in question for it may be and ought to bee answered that the bishops tooke that authoritie vpon them without warrant of the word of God and that the rule is false which cōcerning this matter doth attribute it to the Apostles which may be shewed by the ordaining of Timothie by the Eldership Againe forasmuch as election is the chiefe ground of church-offices which dependeth of the voyces of the whole company and not of the laying on of handes which made not bishops but sent them into their possession after they had made them we may more truly affirme with the Apostle that the holy Ghost by the voices of the children themselues made the fathers and not the bishops An other of his reasons is a deprauing of places alleaged out of Paul that the Church being new borne bishops could not be so established euerywhere at the first as is to be seene in the election of Deacons Whom yet can Epiphanius perswade that it was for want of fit men onely that there were many bishops in euery Church For that which not onelye Hierome but Epiphanius against the Miletians also reporteth concerning them of Alexandria that is Alexandria neuer had two bishops as the other cities vpon what ground Oupote● lexandr● duo epis● pous eich● os kai al● poleis the men of Alexandria did it folowed not the examples of other churches let them see to it Finally that this kind of bishop which who so beareth it is not the first in order amongst his felow elders but in degree aboue them beyng the onely man in his diocesse is not ordeined by the word of God but by custome amongst the fathers Hierome witnesseth as very many others long since haue obserued For these are his woordes in his epistle to Euagrius The Apostle saieth hee doeth teach plainely that Elders and Bishops are all one c. And where as one after was chosen to bee set ouer the rest that saith he was a remedy found out for remedy of schisme that euery one drawyng Christ vnto himselfe myght not rend the Church in sunder For at Alexandria also from the tyme of Marke the Euangelist to the tyme of Heraclea and Dionysius the Bishop the Elders placed one in a high degree or place chosen by themselues whom they called a bishop Moreouer vppon the first to Titus An Elder and a Bishop saith hee is all one and before by the instigation of the deuill there was pertakyng in religion it was sayd amongest the people I am of Paule of Apollos and of Caephas the Churches were gouerned by the common aduise of the Elders But after that euery one imagined that those whome he baptised were his owne and not Christes it was decreed throughout the whole world that one chosen of the Elders shoulde bee set aboue the rest vnto whome all the care of the church might appertayne to the takyng away of the seedes of contentions And a little after As the Elders knowe that they ate subiect by the custome of the Churche to the Bishop that is set ouer them so let the Bishops knowe that they are greater then the Elders rather by custome then by any vertue of the Lordes appoyntment Yea and Augustine also in his 19. epistle saieth that according to the titles of honor which the vse of the Church hath gotten the office of a bishop is greater then the office of an Elder Chrysostome also witnesseth vpon the first to Timothie and the 3. chapter That the Bishops differ from the Elders onely in ordinatiō that is as Theophilact speaketh more plainly in the onely ceremonie of consecration Theodoret writing vpon the same place saith That in olde tyme they called the same men Elders and Bishops as though forsooth the thing it selfe had then bene onely called by another name and goeth about to prooue that because Paule calleth Epaphroditus the Apostle of the Philippians This is of no weight at all The names which are giuen of fellow labourer and fellow souldiour do declare that he was no bishop in this kind of bishop but an Euangelist tied to no one citie much lesse to a diocesse of the number of those whome the Apostles did keepe to send to and fro at the motiō of the spirit of God The councell of Nice also disputing about the degrees of bishops alleageth ancient customes whereof we minde to speake anon And where as Cyprian not in one place calleth the bishops successors of the Apostles whose authoritie is from God and if we take it so as though by the very commandement of God these bishops are the same that in tyme past the Apostles the thing it selfe doth refute that seeyng there was alwayes a certain portion assigned to euery bishop But the Apostles by the direction of the spirite rite of God though not confusedlie did exercise their ministery throughout the whole worlde But if this be true there should haue beene more bishops in the Church of Rome it selfe namely Peter and Paul which yet afterwards was counted peculiar to one And surely ther cannot be mo the cheefe in one and the same company at one time And whereas the name of Byshops is sayd of the Apostleship Acte 1. 20. It maketh nothing to the matter except a man by a like reason woulde haue the Deacons to haue bin Apostles because Paul calleth his Apostleship a Deaconship or ministery But we are to looke Did●●nian into that also that Hierome mighte seeme to be of the mind that this kinde of Byshop begun thē when as schismes arose vp in the Church That this is not so we may gather out of Paul him self who of purpose writing to the Corinthians about the same matter doth not onely passe ouer this remedy but also as foreseeing such a matter doth in the title of the epistle ioyne vnto him selfe Sosthenes to teach by his example how carefully this Primacie is to be auoyded in assemblies of the Church who it is euident were not onely the first in order next vnto Christ but also highest in degree did execute their ministerie in common Wherefore no not the same Paule alone would excommunicate the incestuous persons by his