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
A62285	A serious inquiry into the means of an happy union, or, What reformation is necessary to prevent popery and to avert God's judgments from the nation written upon the occasion of the fast, and humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament by William Saywell.	Saywell, William, 1643-1701.	1681 (1681)	Wing S805; ESTC R25119	28,144	52

Governours that charge men with Schism for denying Obedience and separating themselves from their Communion Christ therefore having appointed Governours in his Church must also have left some peaceable way for ordaining and settling of every man in his Place and Office so as to prevent Schisms and Confusions And to that end the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 14.32 The spirit of the Prophets much more them of the Bishops c. are subject to the Prophets and our Lord has further said If any man refuse to hear the Church Matth. 18. let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican According to these Rules of the Scripture the Christian Church in all Ages did require that Bishops and Pastors should be ordained by Provincial Synods of lawful Bishops or else according to such Canons and Orders as were constituted in Provincial and Universal Councils of Bishops And this was the constant standing Law of the Church for fifteen hundred years together and in quiet times it was constantly observed either by open consent or tacit approbation But upon the Reformation the Ancient and Apostolical Order of Episcopacy was not observed in some places but mere Presbyters did take upon them to ordain other Presbyters yet desiring the restitution of the ancient Order of Bishops if it might be and still maintaining that the ordaining Presbyters and settling of all Affairs of the Church ought to be done by the mutual consent and appointment of the Ecclesiastical Governours in their several Charges and Assemblies as is largly to be seen by the Harmony of Confessions and in several Canons that have been made by Reformed Churches about this matter In pursuance of this Order of Christ and the Canons and Practice of the whole Church ancient and modern Protestant Greek and Roman our Bishops and Clergy here in England are legally and rightly ordained and settled in their several Charges and therefore to disobey them and separate from their Communion or to presume publickly to exercise the Ministerial Office against their command is Schismatical and contrary to the Order of Christ and the whole Church of God And all Popish Priests or Presbyterian Ministers or whosoever they are that hold any Meetings and Congregations besides the lawful Ministers and without their allowance are formal Schismaticks and so are all their Disciples and Communicants So that if there be any such thing as Government in the Church and any such sin as Schism as I have shewed there are the allowing men publickly to affront Gods Ministers by Schismatical Congregations and to live in open contempt of their Authority must needs bring great guilt and heavy Judgments upon the Nation But against this it will be urged by the Papists that our Bishops are no lawful Bishops and our Clergy no lawful Ministers of Christ because they are not confirmed and authorized by the Pope To which I answer Papists guilty of Schism When they shall shew any Law or Tradition of the Universal Church to make it necessary for the Pope to confirm our Bishops then I will allow the Objection to be of moment but 't is so far from that that the Laws of the whole Church and of many ancient Popes Conc. Nic. can 4. Conc. Ant. can 9. Vid. Dist 64. do forbid the Pope to meddle with Ordinations in other Provinces and expresly say that all Ordinations of Bishops ought to be by the Metropolitans and Bishops of each respective Province amongst themselves And so long as there is a peaceable agreement amongst all our Bishops and Clergy concerning this matter that is a sufficient reason to free us and charge all Popish Priests here in England and all their Adherents with the guilt of Schism and to make it appear that they do act contrary to the Law and Tradidition of the whole Church of Christ The Presbyterians and Independents also Presbyterians and Independents guilty of Schism that had formerly Episcopal Ordination or else Imposition of Hands from Presbyters which they esteem sufficient Holy Orders are guilty of Schism if they keep Conventicles or withdraw themselves and others from the Obedience and Communion of the respective Bishops and Ministers of this Nation For the Bishops and Clergy being rightly constituted and peaceably settled in their several Charges according to the order of Christ by undoubted Succession from the Apostles and according to the Canons and Tradition of the whole Church and even after that manner by order of Provincial Synods which all Reformed Churches do practise and allow they have Authority from the Holy Ghost and do rule the Church over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers and all in their Charges must obey them that have the rule over them and submit themselves unto them Heb. 13.17 Unless therefore they can prove that the whole Church in all Ages was fundamentally mistaken in this matter and that our Bishops and Ministers are no legal Pastors of Christs Flock they in disobeying them do disobey Christ and the whole Church and are to be accounted as Heathens and Publicans Matth. 18. And then if our Land should publickly permit or not go about to take away such publick Offences we may expect that God should pour down his indignation upon us as he did upon the Heathen when we countenance those that make themselves as Heathens amongst us Matth. 18.17 CHAP. V. Objections of Dissenters answered ALL that they can say in this matter is Object That the Bishops and Clergy of England are lawful Church-governours over those that choose and receive them but over none else and they having never chosen them for their Teachers and Governours they are not so to them and therefore they are no Schismaticks in withdrawing from their Communion and choosing other Governours for themselves It is true Answ People have no right to choose their Ministers 't is required that a Clergyman should be of good behaviour and have a good report of them which are without 1 Tim. 3.2 7. And consequently all Christians have a right to except against ill manners but I never find that Christ or his Apostles in their practice or that any Word of God does allow that the People should have any thing to do in choosing their Bishops and Ministers much less had a Negative to reject whom they please Indeed the Churches in former Ages have been moved with the nomination and earnest instance of Kings and Princes and by the recommendation and petition of the People to ordain such men Bishops and Priests as they did desire if they found them worthy but 't is by no Example or Tradition from Christ or his Apostles and they found so many inconveniences by it that the Universal Church did forbid it Concil Laod. can 13. reckoned among the Canons of the Universal Church It ought not to be permitted to the people to have the election of those that are to be appointed to the sacred Ministry And therefore where Ministers

are peaceably settled according to the publick Order of the Church the pretence of the Peoples Negative cannot free men from obedience or excuse their Schism in departing from them But secondly all that right the People can pretend to is transferred to their Representatives in Parliament who have in their Laws confirmed all the Bishops and Clergy now in possession by their Authority and so they are settled by the Peoples consent likewise and therefore in all respects whatsoever our Clergy are undoubted Ministers of Christ and all within their charge must own them for such and submit to their Authority But the Parliament may alter these Laws and give the People a Negative I will not dispute what they may or may not do in this matter they having formerly made Laws to confirm those Ministers that are already they have undoubted right from the Peoples consent likewise if that does avail any thing and therefore as long as those Ministers live in the Orthodox Profession of true Religion they will be Schismaticks that disobey them That there is an open flagrant Schism is plain and the guilt of this must lie somewhere it cannot possibly be charged upon the Bishops and Clergy and the Church of England for they go on upon the same Rules and Methods that they did before 41 when there were few of these Nonconformists and separate Congregations and according to the order of the whole Christian Church therefore the Crime must wholly lie upon those who run away from their own Ministers and heap to themselves Teachers and Disciples contrary to the Command of Christ and the Law of his Church But they will say They are not the Schismaticks but the Bishops and Clergy by imposing unlawful Ceremonies which they cannot submit to as the use of the Surplice and an Aerial Cross and therefore must keep Coventicles of their own Suppose the Church was mistaken in the imposing these Ceremonies what Authority can they have to keep Conventicles Since they are but private men a private Worship in their own Families is all that they can pretend to exercise but that can be no Warrant for them to assemble in publick Congregations and seduce others from their obedience to their lawful Teachers As for the Ceremonies they are no other than the whole Church of God in the purer times did observe and practise For the Surplice S. Jerom upon Ezek. Of the Surplice 42. says The Divine Religion hath one habit in the Ministry and another in common use and conversation And against the Pelagians lib. 1. c. 9. What offence I ask is it against God if I wear a more pure garment If the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Order do go with a white garment when they administer about holy things Take heed O ye Clergy take heed O ye that are devoted to an holy life ye Widows and Virgins you are in danger from these Pelagian Hereticks unless the common people do behold you in sordid and in ragged Woollen Apparel So that they were the Pelagian Hereticks that quarrelled against the use of the Surplice of old for which S. Jerom does deride their folly and madness Concil 4. Carthag c. 41. 't is decreed that A Deacon in the time of his oblation or reading onely should wear a white garment From whence we may very well conclude that Bishops and Priests likewise had a peculiar Habit in their sacred Administrations Theodoret in his History lib. 2. c. 23. does make mention of an holy Garment given by Constantine to Macarius the Bishop when he adorned the Church of Jerusalem that he should wear it at the time of the Administration of holy Baptism And that this holy Garment being afterwards worn by a Stage-player as he was dancing in it he fell down and died Which instances do further prove there were used distinctive Habits in the Primitive Church in the time of the sacred Administration And for the use of the sign of the Cross Antiquity is much more full Of the sign of the Cross that one would wonder how men can neglect much less blame a thing which the godly Martyrs and ancient Fathers did so much use and glory in Tertull. de Coron Mil. c. 3. At every progress and motion c. we sign our foreheads with the sign of the Cross S. Cyprian ep 55. Let the forehead be fortified that the sign of God may be kept secure S. Jerom upon Ezek. 10. In the ancient Hebrew Letters which the Samaritans use at this day the letter Thau is of the figure of a Cross which is made in the forehead of Christians and often signed with the hand S. August tract 11. in Joan. If we say to a Catechumen Do you believe in Christ He answers I believe and signs himself with the Cross of Christ He carries it in his forehead and is not ashamed of the Cross of Christ And in 118. Unless the sign of the Cross be applied whether it be to the foreheads of the Believers or to the water by which they are regenerated or to the Sacrifice viz. in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by which they are nourished none of them is rightly performed S. Chrysost Hom. 54. in Matth. All things amongst us are performed with the sign of the Cross If any be to be regenerated that is baptized the Cross is used if he be to be nourished with mystical food if he be to be confirmed and whatever else every where the symbol of our victory is at hand And for this cause we make the sign of it with a great deal of care upon our houses and upon our walls and upon our doors upon our foreheads and upon our minds It were easie to bring many more instances of the primitive usage of the Cross but these are sufficient But I will add some few Histories to shew how God himself did miraculously from Heaven encourage the Christians in the use thereof And the first shall be that renowned representation of the Cross in the Heavens made to Constantine before his Army Vide Euseb in vita Const l. 1. Socr. l. 1. c. 1. with this Inscription joyned to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this overcome at which the Emperour and the whole Army were astonished and wondered what it should mean But while he doubted and reasoned in his mind about it be fell asleep and in his dream Christ seemed to appear to him with the sign that was seen in the Heavens and commanded him to make a representation of the sign that appeared to him and to use it as a defence against the Conflicts of his Adversaries which when he awoke he declared to his Friends and caused Crosses to be made of Gold and precious stones Gregory Nazianzen tells another remarkable story of a miraculous appearing of a Cross in the Heavens Greg. Naz. orat 2. adv Jul. in the days of Julian the Apostate who encouraged the Jews to rebuild their Temple at