Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	1,031	5	10.3609	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50529	Diatribae discovrses on on divers texts of Scriptvre / delivered upon severall occasions by Joseph Mede ...; Selections. 1642	Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.	1642 (1642)	Wing M1597; ESTC R233095	303,564	538

threefold relation First To God Secondly To the People Thirdly One toward another In respect of God all are Ministers of what degree soever they be because they do what they do by commission from him either more or lesse immediate for a Minister is he qui operam suam alicui ut superlori aut domino praebet In respect of the People all are Bishops that is Inspectores or Overseers as having charge to look unto them But lastly compared one to another he whom we usually call Bishop is onely Overseer of the rest Inspector totius Cleri Deacons are onely Ministers to the rest Ministri Presbyterorum Episcoporum and in that respect have their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops are a degree of Presbyters of divine ordinance to be as Heads Chiefs and Presidents of their Brethren All other Ecclesiasticall Ministers whether in Ecclesia or Foro Ecclesiastico I mean whether they attend divine Duties in the Church or Jurisdiction in Ecclesiasticall Courts are all a kinde of Deacons being to the Presbyters either single or Episcopall as the Levites were to the Sacerdotes in the Old Testament namely to minister unto or for them These grounds being forelaid and understood I affirm first that Presbyters are by us unnaturally and improperly called Ministers either of the Church or of such or such a Parish we should call them as my text doth Ministers of God or Ministers of Christ not Ministers of men First Because they are onely Gods Ministers who sends them but the Peoples Magistri to teach instruct and oversee them Were it not absurd to call the Shepheard the sheeps Minister If he be their Minister they surely are his Masters And so indeed the People by occasion of this misappellation think they are ours and use us accordingly Indeed we are called Ministers but never their Ministers but as you see here Gods Ministers Christs Ministers who imployeth us to dispense his Mysteries unto his Church There are three words in the New Testament translated Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first is most frequent but not one of them is given to the Apostles in the whole Scripture with relation to the Church or People you shall never finde them called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is so frequent with us but Ministers of God 2 Cor. 6. 4. 1 Thess. 3. 2. Ministers of Christ as in my text and 2 Cor. 11. 23. Col. 1. 7. Ministers of Iesus Christ. 1 Tim. 4. 6. or Ministers of that which they minister as Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3. 6. Ministers of the Gospel Eph. 3. 7. Col. 1. 23. but not Ministers of them to whose behoof they minister Yet might this speech Minister of the Church if rightly construed be admitted namely if it be spoken by an Ellipsis for Minister of God for and over the Church so the Apostle Coloss. 1. 17. A faithfull Minister of Christ for you that is Christs Minister not theirs yet not for Christ but for them But those who use this speech commonly mean otherwise Secondly Angels are called ministring spirits but not our Ministers but Gods Ministers to us-ward or for our behalf So Ministers of the Gospel not the Peoples or Congregations Ministers but Gods Ministers for their behoof Thirdly this speech Minister of the Church or of this or that Church is so much the more incommodious because it hath begotten as incommodious and unapt speeches do an erroneous conceit not onely among the vulgar but some of better understanding namely that a Minister is not lawfully called unlesse he be chosen by the People because he is their Minister and so to be deputed by them And indeed if he be their Minister in proper relation they are his Masters and so it is good reason they should appoint him as Masters do those who are to serve them But if in proper relation they are Gods Ministers and not theirs though for them then God is to appoint them or such as he hath put in place to do it It is an erroneous opinion that some maintain That the power of Sacred Order and of the Keyes is given by God immediately to the body of the Congregation and that they depute him who is their Minister to execute the power which is originally in them That power is conferred by God immediately to those who are Bishops and Pastors and by and through them belongs to the whole body and no otherwise Sed tantum potuit incommodi sermonis usus Some perhaps object against my whole assertion that of S. Paul 2 Cor. 4. 5. We preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord to wit esse Dominum and our selves your servants for Iesus sake If the Apostles were the Churches servants why not their Ministers I answer the Apostle sayes not they were the Corintbians servants but that he had made himself so in his Preaching to them So he sayes expresly 1 Cor. 9. 19. For though I be free from all men yet I have made my self a servant to all that I might gain the more Yet he confesses the Corinthians began to vilifie him for this condescent 2 Cor. 11. 7. Have I committed an offence in abasing my self that you might be exalted because I have preached unto you the Gospel of God freely This was that wherein he carried himself toward the Corinthians as a Servant but to other Churches he did not so It would be a strange assertion to say the Apostle were the Corinthians Servant in a proper relation we know he sayes Gal. 1. 10. If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ And Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom you yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey I come now to a second assertion which is that howsoever any Ecclesiasticall person may be rightly called a Minister so it be in a proper relation to God-ward yet the word Minister is again most unfitly used by us for a name of distinction of one Ecclesiasticall Order from another As when we call those which are Presbyters Ministers by way of distinction from Deacons for so we speak Ministers and Deacons in stead of Priests and Deacons The reason we thus speak is to avoid the name Priest which we conceive to signifie Sacerdos that is one that sacrificeth such as were those in the Law But our Curates of holy things in the Gospel are not to offer Sacrifice and therefore ought not to be called Sacerdotes and consequently not Priests This is the reason but if it be well examined Priest is the English of Presbyter and not of Sacerdos there being in our Tongue no word in use for Sacerdos Priest which we use for both being improperly used for a Sacrificer but naturally expressing a Presbyter the name whereby the Apostles call both themselves and those which succeed them in their charge For who can deny that our word Priest is corrupted of Presbyter Our Ancestors the