Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	church_n	ordination_n	3,829	5	10.8464	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04400	A discouery of the errors of the English Anabaptists As also an admonition to all such as are led by the like spirit of error. Wherein is set downe all their seuerall and maine points of error, which they hold. With a full answer to euery one of them seuerally, wherein the truth is manifested. By Edmond Iessop who sometime walked in the said errors with them.	Etherington, John, fl. 1641-1645.; Jessop, Edmond, attributed name.	1623 (1623)	STC 14520; ESTC S107746	83,433	114

wrath But whatsoeuer Anabaptist do retaine the mariage of the Church of England do retaine the marke of the Beast Therefore whatsoeuer Anabaptist do retaine the mariage of the Church of England shall certainly drinke of the cup of Gods wrath Euery mariage which is marke of the Beast must be made void to auoid the wrath of God But euery mariage of the Anabaptists in the Church of England before their schisme from it is a mark of the Beast Therefore euery mariage of the Anabaptists in the Church of England before their schisme from it must be made void to auoid the wrath of God Which being true then cease they to be maried as children to be baptized That the baptisme of children neither is nor can be the mark of the Beast spoken of in Reuel 13. 16. These men might easily perceiue if they were not altogether ignorant and destitute of vnderstanding what the nature of that marke is For the marke of the Beast there spoken of is such a thing indeed as yong children are not capable of and therefore they are not set downe among those that are said to receiue the same And hee causeth all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receiue a marke in their right hand or in their forehead Meaning by small and great such as are so in regard of their high and low places and callings in the world and by rich and poore such as are rich or poore in regard of the plenty or scarcitie of the riches and things of this world and present life and by free and bond they that are at libertie and free and they that be in bondage or captiuitie in regard of any captiuitie or seruitude to men Hee doth not say yong and old which if yong children had been included amongst them he should haue said because they are all so distinctly and seuerally named that doe receiue it Besides the marke of the Beast being such a thing as it is namely a voluntary submission and resolute purpose to do and subscribe to all the lawes and commandements of the Beast whether secretly or openly and to declare and testifie themselues to be such as are allied vnto him both by word and deed And thus hauing also made cleere this point we end hoping that the things which are spoken will giue to those that are not wilfull and obstinate but of a meeke and lowly heart full satisfaction Their seuenth point That Church of England is a false Antichristian Church and ought to be seperated from That it is false and Antichristian we proue thus That the Church whose Bishop and Ministers haue had their first ordination from the false Antichristian Church of Rome whereof Antichrist is the head is false and Antichristian But the Church of England her Bishops and Ministers haue had their first ordination from the false Antichristian Church of Rome whereof Antichrist is the head Therefore the Church of England is a false Antichristian Church That it ought therefore to be seperated from we proue thus If euery false Antichristian Church ought to be seperated from then the Church of England ought to be seperated from because she is false and Antichristian as before is proued But euery false and Antichristian Church ought to be seperated from as Reu. 18. 4. Come out of her my people c. Therefore the Church of England ought to be seperated from We Answere THe first proposition of this Argument is false A Church whose Bishops Ministers haue had their first ordination outward from the false Antichristian Church of Rome whereof Antichrist is head may yet notwithstanding be a true Church and they true Bishops and Ministers and not Antichristian It is not the outward ordination which a Bishop or Minister hath before his conuersion receiued of a false Antichristan Church that can either pollute him benow conuerted and called of God or make the Church to which he ministreth false or Antichristian Neither is it the bare outward ordination receiued of the best Church that euer was in the world and in the best outward forme that is that can make either him that receiueth it a true faithfull Minister of God or the Church to which he ministreth a true Church of Christ But he may be both a false teacher an Antichrist and his Church false and antichristian notwithstanding Those false teachers and Antichrists that were in the Apostles times had no doubt their first ordination from the true Church of God in as good an outward forme as any is or can be and that Church or people that were led by them could not chuse but be vnsound The Scriptures foretelling of false prophets false teachers Antichrists and of the great Antichrist which should arise describeth them to rise not from among the heathen or Iewes as some imagine the great Antichrist shall but in and out of the Church of God euen of and from among those that should succeed the Apostles and Elders of the Churches which the Apostles did plant succeed I say as touching the outward ordination in the externall offices and places of them Saint Paul being neere his departure from his labors to the Lord calling the Elders of the Church of Ephesus together forewarned them saying And now behold I know that yee all amongst whom I haue gone preaching the kingdome of God shall see my face no more wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I haue kept nothing backe but haue declared vnto you all the counsell of God take heed therefore vnto yourselues and to the flocke whereof the holy Ghost hath made you ouerseers to feede the Church of God which he hath purchased with his owne bloud For I know this that after my departing shall grieuous wolues enter in among you not sparing the flock Moreouer of your owne selues shall men arise speaking peruerse things to draw disciples after them Therefore watch and remember These were such as the holy Ghost had made ouerseers so that their outward calling ordination and succession could not be excepted against and yet we see what Paul foretells and forewarnes them of Againe Saint Iohn speaking of Antichrists that rose in his time saith They went out from vs c. And Christ himselfe foretelling of the abhomination of desolation which should be set vp by the great Antichrist saith that it shall stand in the holy place where it ought not When yee therefore shall see the abhomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place Meaning by the holy place the Church of God the place where God dwelleth and is worshipped as Saint Paul declareth saying Let no man deceiue you by any meanes for that day shall not come except there be a departing first and that the man of sinne be reuealed the Sonne of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himselfe aboue all that is called God or that is

worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God According as the Prophet had spoken of him long before prophesying also of his destruction saying How art thou falne from heauen O Lucifer sonne of the morning how art thou cut downe to the ground thou that didst weaken the nations and saidst in thine heart I will ascend into heauen I will exalt my throne aboue the starres of God I will sit also vpon the mount euen the holy mount of the congregation of God in the sides of the North I will ascend aboue the height of the clouds I will be like the most high So that the great Antichrist was to sit and doth sit euen in the Church in the Temple of God in the place where indeed he ought not to sit If then all these things be so as these Scriptures doe declare If it be not the outward calling ordination or succession in the offices and places of the true Elders and Ministers of God in the outward state of the Church of God that can either make them true faithfull Ministers of God such as come by the doore as Christ speaketh Or the Church of which they are ouerseers and ministers the true holy Church of Christ but that these Elders and Ministers may yet neuerthelesse proue false Prophets false teachers grieuous rauening wolues in sheepes cloathing Antichrists c. And the Churches be corrupted by them robd and deuoured both outwardly and inwardly and become euen heathenish and Antichristian And that these deceiuers shall rise in the Church of God and be such as haue had their outward ordination and succession from hand to hand as it were euen from the Apostles And that the great Antichrist himselfe shall sit in the holy place in the temple of God vpon the holy mount of the congregation of God aboue and besides the starres of God What reason haue we then to thinke I say this being so that the outward calling or ordination which the Elders and Ministers of the Church of England receiued at first from the Church of Rome should make either them or the Church false and Antichristian It was not the outward ordination or succession in the offices and place of the Elders that did corrupt any of them before mentioned Nay The Bishop of Rome himselfe might haue beene Bishop of Rome long enough to this day to the day of Christs comming in the cloudes of heauen and haue done his master Christ good seruice If he had kept the first faith If he had liued the first life If he had successed the Apostles and Elders in faith in doctrine in exhortation in patience in temperance in meekenesse in mortification in loue in good workes in feeding the flock of Christ and giuing them their meate in due season as he did succeed them in outward place he had then beene a Scribe well taught in the kingdome of God A faithfull Bishop an Elder worthy of double honour and happy had that flock beene of which he had beene an ouerseer and his master at his comming would haue said Blessed be this seruant But seeing he failed in all these things and did not succeed his Elders in this way and order of succession as all their true successors to this day haue euer done seeing his heart was euill and vnfaithfull ambitious couetous and loued pleasures and voluptuousnesse more then God and said in his heart My master will deferre his coming and therefore take vpon him to smite his fellowes to eate and drinke with the drunken his Lord will come in a day which he thinketh not on and in an houre that he is not aware of and will hew him in peeces and giue him his portion with the hypocrites and vnhappie is the flock that hath him for their shepherd The Church of Rome was once a glorious Church not in regard of any such pomp and princely state as she that now is sits in which poore virgin she was neuer acquainted with but in respect of the light and brightnesse of her faith as Saint Paul testifieth which by reason of the fruite it did effect and bring forth in her shined and made her face to shine throughout the world She was a sister and daughter of that woman which Iohn saw so wonderfully and heauenly deckt and adorned and which he describeth saying And there appeared a great wonder in heauen a woman clothed with the Sunne and the Moone vnder her feete and vpon her head a crowne of twelue starres that is to say she had put on Christ he dwelt in her heart by faith she was clothed with him his righteousnesse couered her nakednesse and all her defects and made her beautifull within and without she had the earth and all earthly glorie vnder her feete as transitorie and vaine she was mortified to sinne and to the pleasures thereof and her soules delight was with her Lord in heauen where he was ascended and yet remaineth and her crowne of state which she had on her head in those days was the Lambs twelue Apostles whose doctrine and example of walking were her guide and patterne and who as they had receiued of the Lamb the word of God so they left it with her to be her light and leader in the desart when her publique guides should faile her of which word of truth not so much the letter as the spirituall true intent thereof she and her children her true successors haue been the sustainers and pillars of to this day This was once of a truth the estate of the Church of Rome as also of other Churches elsewhere but alas it lasted but a while it fared with her as with the rest for by the bloody persecution of the great red Dragon her outward beautie was defaced she was dispersed and forced to flie with them into the wildernesse and then after a while when the storme of persecution was ouer and that a calme began to be settled so as she began to conceiue some hope of recouering her first estate heresies sprang vp and were maintained with great force on the one side and carnall securitie grew on the other and that iniquitie might be increased according as the Lord had foretold the loue of many waxed cold The mystery of iniquitie which began to worke in the Apostles times they being departed took now faster footing according to their words and stroue daily to perfection and at last he that letted was taken away and the man of sinne Antichrist was reuealed and set vp in the throne of the Dragon and the Dragons religion was by him and his so commanded and commixt with the external profession of the name and religion of Christ as that no man could partake of the better but he must partake of the worse For after that the Bishop of Rome had obtained at the Dragons hāds that his Church should be the Mother of all other Churches and that all must

crouch and bend to her and that he became Lord and master of all then did he among the rest of his requitals entertaine and command such part of the Dragons religion and Church-seruice as might giue him the best content and most aduance his owne temporall state of glorie So that hauing once obtained the Dragons seate and that all his heads hils and hornes were his he thought he might now do what he list fell to desolating of the true worship of God and to consuming of the Saints of the most high the remnant of the true Spouse the children of the woman before described and pulled downe the daily and spirituall sacrifice which they the spirituall house of God offered vp acceptable to him by Iesus Christ cast the truth to the ground as the Prophet had foretold of him brought in and set vp the abhominable and most execrable religion of the heathen compounding it and dignifying the parts practise and practisers of it the more to delude the world with the names and titles of God Christ holy Spirit the word of God his holy Church his worship Seruice his holy Sacraments and Saints And that he might haue all in obedience made such lawes by the aduice of his priuie councell that whosoeuer would not worship the Beast and this image of the Beast the idols and abhominations of the heathen and pagans should by the executioners of his will be taken and killed And because he would be sure to know his own and to find out all that would not submit caused all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receiue a marke in his right hand or in his forehead and that no man might buy or sell saue he that had the marke c. Now when once things were come to this passe it was no longer time for any soule that would be saued to stay and for this cause it was that Christ commandeth saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partaker of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins haue reached vnto heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities And these were the very reasons why at the first the Church of England separated from her and also why so many of other nations did forsake her When Wickliffe Husse Tindal Luther Cranmer Latimer and others forsooke the Church of Rome and came out of her they stood not to make question about their outward calling or ordination they had receiued before of the Church of Rome but God hauing called them now by a more speciall heauenly calling to preach his truth they staid not for neither did they look after another Nay if they had the truth might haue lien hid we might haue sat in darknesse vntill this day but they finding the approbation of God and his people It was enough Let me aske If God should vouchsafe to call the Bishop of Rome the Pope that now is and that he should forsake all those abhominations which he now liueth in and become such a Scribe Bishop or Elder as before we haue described who would condemne him or call him Antichrist for that he was once the Pope of Rome though he had neuer other outward ordination more then the approbation of God and his people or who would call the people that should imbrace him Antichristians doubtlesse not any of the children of wisdome Agiane presuppose that the state of all Europe were now as it hath beene heretofore all vnder Antichrist and his Church and that God should call one of the Bishops of that Church out from them and in due him with the knowledge of his truth by his word Spirit and that there be a necessitie as thou saist that he must haue another outward ordination before he can Minister the word of God vnto any people so as to be a Bishop or Elder vnto them whither wouldest thou haue him to goe for it or where wilt thou finde an Eldership to ordaine him In Europe there be none all are Antichristians Wilt thou haue Apostles againe to lay a new foundation and must they ordaine new Elders before their can be a true constituted Church with her offices and ordinances as thou termest them Is this thy iudgement It may be if it be not Nay it must be if thou hold thee to thy former It hath beene the opinion of some of thy predecessors that held themselues as wise as thy selfe whatsoeuer thou art as for instance there were among others three Brethren ancient Separatists from the Church of England liuing sometimes in the Cittie of London their names were Legat these held it stifly that their must be new Apostles before their could be a true constituted Church and they drew it from this their ground the one was called Walter Legat who about twenty yeares since was drowned being with one of his brethren washing himselfe in a riuer called the Old Foord Another of them called Thomas Legat died in Newgate about sixteene yeares since being laid there for the Heresie of Arius The third called Bartholomew Legat was burnt in Smithfield about ten yeares since being condemned for the same Heresie of Arius for they all held and stood stoutly for the same also These Legats had a conceit that their name did as it were foreshew and entitle them to be the new Apostles that must doe this new worke but you see what became of them There was also one Iohn Wilkinson another ancient stout Separatist who with diuers that followed him held the same likewise drawing it from the same ground as a necessary consequence thereof who also came to naught But if there be any yet that will needs haue new Apostles as no doubt there be for their carnall contentions worke still to that point then let me aske thee whence must they come who shall send them Christ is ascended and he doth not now appeare to call and send any as he did the Apostle Paul and Apostles must be such as come from the presence of the Lord and haue seene him For which cause Saint Paul saith in the defence of his Apostleship Haue not I seene the Lord c. And he that was to be in Iudas his roome must be one that had bin conuersant with the Apostles the time of Christs being then on earth an eye witnes to publish that which he saw and beleeued So that Apostles thou canst not vpon any good ground expect If thou saist the Church may ordaine n●● Elders I aske whence came that Church who plant 〈◊〉 first can there be an Orchard of fruitfull trees and was there not a husbandman that planted it Can faith be without preaching or can there be a Church without faith If thou hast found a true Church find but out him that planted it that first preached the word of God vnto it whereby it beleeued and became his Church thou hast found an Elder feare it not thou needest not make further