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	king_n	see_v	4,142	5	4.2666	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39854	Two sermons the first preached in Christ-Church, Dublin, Feb. 19, 1681, at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, William Lord Bishop of Kildare, William Lord Bishop of Kilmore, and Richard Lord Bishop of Kilalla : the other, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, at the primary visitation of the most Reverend Father in God, Francis Lord Arch-bishop of Dublin, Apr. 24, 1682 / by S. Foley ...	Foley, Samuel, 1655-1695.; Moreton, William, 1641-1715.; Sheridan, William, 1636-1711.; Tenison, Richard, 1640?-1705.; Marsh, Francis, 1627-1693.	1683 (1683)	Wing F1400; ESTC R2994	25,191	58

Cyprian's Observation (c) Neque enim aliunde Haereses abortae sunt aut nata sunt Schismata quam inde quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur 'T is the 59th Epist in the New Edition Pag. 121. in his 55th Epistle That most of the Schisms which have harass'd and disgrac'd the Church have proceeded from disobedience to the Bishop And Epist 69. (d) Inde Schismata haereses obortae sunt oriuntur dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur homo dignatione Dei honoratus indignus ab Hominibus judicatur He says That the Contempt of the Bishop will naturally end in Schism and Heresy And Calvin (e) Calvin Inst Cap. 8. Sect. 53. as he supposes Episcopacy to be of human institution so he says it was Established Ne ex aequalitate ut fieri solet dissidia nascerentur To prevent those Contentions which are commonly occasion'd by Equality And our late Experience tells us how the Church was divided and subdivided among us in the Late Unhappy Times when the Bishops were by the prevailing Party by force driven from their Charges the evil effects of which we are yet too sensible of In short a Bishop cannot have any design in disturbing the Peace of the Church and in occasioning Separations he can have no Advantage by it and consequently no Temptation to it which I need not say Others may have Secondly In reference to the Civil Government happiness of the State and ease of the Subject When other Forms of Church Government were in the Ascendant in England it cannot yet be forgotten what Diminution and Prejudice to the Royal Honour and Prosperity attended them I need not put your in mind how Seditious Insolent Turbulent and Ungovernable (f) See the Character the King gives of them in his Basilicon Doron King James to his great Grief found the Presbyteries in Scotland for many Years together and what usage his Son since Martyr'd did many Years after receive from them It may be demonstrated that They who speak severely against the Bishops for being as they pretend Enemies to the Civil Magistrate in claiming their Authority from God do the same themselves only with far less reason and with much greater injury to their Prince Thus the Presbyterian Model and Discipline though never heard of the World till within these last Two Hundred Years is declared by them to be the very Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to which all must submit even Princes their Thrones and Scepters The Independents pretend the Holy Scripture for theirs that any Society of men Combining together by common consent in a Church-way and Membership is by Divine Right Free and Absolute within it self to Govern its self by such Rules as it shall judge agreeable to Gods Word without dependance or subjection in Spiritual Concerns to any Human Person or Society whatsoever 'T is notorious that the Presbyters do Claim to their Consistories Full and Absolute Spiritual Power and Jurisdiction over Princes themselves with Power to Excommunicate them when they see Cause And the Independents do exempt their Congregations from all Spiritual Subjection to the Civil Powers But our Bishops do neither pretend to Jurisdiction over our King nor do withdraw their due Subjection from him whom God has made Supream upon Earth over all Persons in all Causes Spiritual as well as Temporal within his Dominions And as to the good of the Subject 'T is not so long since Presbytery was Established and found Intolerable in England and we are not Ignorant how all Parties did contribute to throw it down 't was so very uneasie As for Independency few now know what it is (g) Dr. A. Stuart a Presbyterian sayd He verily believed that Independency cannot but prove the root of all Schisms and Heresies and by consequence much worse than Popery Duply to M. S. Pag. 53. See the Papers for Accommodation and fewer do desire it And as for other Sects they are not yet agreed what Government they would have nor is it likely that ever they will be Some indeed do fancy Independency to be a pretty easy sweet gentle thing But certainly for men to cry out against the Yoke of Bishops as intolerable and yet to make every Parish-Minister a Bishop an Absolute Sovereign Independent Bishop owning no Superiour under Heaven to whom Appeal may be made is as Ridiculous as 't would be to Cry out against Monarchy as unsupportable and to desire in lieu of it that every Constable be made a King To conclude this point Many and great Advantages hath the Church of God in all Ages enjoyed and we do now enjoy by this Government and of many of them like one of the greatest Blessings of this Life the Health of our Bodies whilst we are constantly well we are almost insensible But still they are not the less for it though we understand them more by their absence and can then put the truest value on them when we see others in Feavers and Frenzies and it may be for their Comfort in the hands of Empericks too And so I come to the Third Enquiry What may be reasonably expected from Persons intrusted with that Sacred Power and Authority It was not only St. Paul's Charge to Titus after he had made him a Bishop To shew himself in all things a Pattern of good works but he also makes it a necessary qualification to every Bishop that he be Blameless And with great reason For we know that for one in that Dignity to be wicked is the boldest Affront and Dishonour to God himself and one of the most fatal mischiefs to his Church imaginable so dreadful that a vicious Bishop would not be looked on so much as a Governour as a publick Judgment over our heads Besides Vice hath this property that it renders all men contemptible most of all Clergy-men because 't is their business and profession to make men good and among them They who are of the highest Rank shall be the more signally despised and thereby made clearly unserviceable It will therefore be justly expected that they do not contradict their Divine and Holy Doctrines and make useless their Authority by their loose and unsanctified Lives Farther 'T was St. Paul's Charge That they should speak the things that become sound Doctrine exhort and convince Gainsayers and rebuke with all Authority And indeed men will suppose that Power was committed to them to the intent that they should make some use of it and that we are made subject to them that they may compel us if there be occasion to do our duties And now that there is so miserable a decay of all Devotion and Piety that men are so loose in ther Principles and so corrupt in their Lives that the Church is so despised and Religion it self so commonly suppos'd a Cheat or

it was not to the Seven Churches themselves is evident from his Saving That the seven Churches were the Seven Candlesticks but the Seven Stars (c) Rev. i. 20. St. Austin says by the Angel is meant Praepositus Ecclesiae St. Hierom Angeli Ecclesiis Praesidentes This Sense is allow'd by Bullinger and Beza were the seven Angels which did shine in them That the Angel of each of those Churches was not a Synod of Presbyters but a Single Person appears from this that the Reproofs and Charges given there are Personal We cannot say for instance that all the Elders of the (d) Acts xx 17 18. Church of Ephesus where St. Paul settled many could agree in all those Qualifications and Defects mentioned by St. John from whence it follows that each of those Churches in St. John's days was Governed by Single Persons But tho' there be some who will have nothing esteemed of momen in this Concern but what is found in Scripture or in some System of Divinity yet I hope we may be allowed to make recourse to Ecclesiastical History For we are not to seek in the Scriptures for what was done after that they were written and the Fathers who were the Successors of the Apostles can best tell what they who were next before them did To shew the unreasonableness of the contrary Opinion I shall propose a like Case If a Question were now made how Alexander the Great his Empire was disposed of after his Death and any one would take upon him to dictate with great Confidence That we ought not to consult Diodorus Siculus Plutarch and others who wrote of those Transactions but to apply our selves wholly to Aristotles Politicks or which is indeed much nearer to the prudent Advice of some of our Anti-Episcopal writers to take the words of some now alive and to send for certain Sober Good Able Men to whom they can recommend us who perhaps have never much troubled themselves with that useless Study of History but yet having profoundly studied Politicks can from their own Models and Principles best inform us how those matters went then we should I presume beg their Pardon and upon the very same grounds we must so now and address our selves to Antiquity for a Resolution Now we cannot find one word in Ecclesiastical History of which it is not improbable that they are well aware that from the days of the very Apostles any Church was otherwise Governed than by a Single Person till after the beginning of the Sixteenth Century But it would not be proper here to prosecute this matter largely and therefore I shall only propose a few instances out of the most early Christian Writers The eldest of the Fathers we have is Clemens Romanus and he in his excellent Epistle to the Corinthians shews plainly that he was of Opinion that as it was actually in his Time the Apostles themselves did by Divine Inspiration continue a Government in which Bishops and Presbyters were no less distinguished than they are now I cannot stay to consider what is weakly Objected out of him but must refer to others particularly to the two Learned Annotators upon him and to the Worthy and Learned Defender (e) Dr. Beveridge Codex Can. Vindic. Cap. 11. of the Codex Canonum St. Ignatius the Martyr who Lived with the Apostles and was afterwards Bishop of Antioch himself in many places of his Epistles shews that the Church was Governed by Bishops and that he means by a Bishop (f) That St. Ignatius does not term the Order of Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rivet and Salmasius will have it See Dr. Hammond's Dissert Pag. 77. the same that we do And indeed his Testimony in this Controversie is so full and positive that they who desire that what he Affirms should not be true and yet pretend some Respect for so Apostolick a man have no shift but to deny that these Epistles are Genuine But that they are has been as fully demonstrated as any thing of that nature can possibly be formerly by several other worthy Persons particularly by that Prodigie of Learning and Piety the most Excellent Primate Vsher a Person one would think sufficient to reconcile Men who were Lovers of either to that Order and since by a Reverend and Learned Prelate (g) The Reverend Bishop of Chester now Living in England That Bishops were above Presbyters in the Second Century is expresly Asserted by (h) Clemens Alexandr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. cap. 12. pag. 264. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More clearly Stromat Lib. 6. Pag. 667. Clemens Alexandrinus by (i) Orig. in Hieremiam Homil. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he was then himself a Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By whom undoubredly is meant the Bishop and it plainly shews That he was above the Presbyters Edit Huet Rothomag Anno 1668. Pag. 114. Huetius guesses that Origen understands either Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea or Babylas Patriarch of Antioch Observat Pag. 14. Origen likewise on Mat. Ch. xix Pag. 363. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On Cap. 21. pag. 442. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen and (k) Tertullian de Baptismo cap. 17. Dandi quidem habet jus Summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus dehinc Presbyteri Diaconi non tamen sine Episcopi Auctoritate propter Ecclesiae Honorem quo salvo salva pax est Tertullian Of Heraclas who was afterwards Bishop of Alexandria Origen (l) Apud Euseb Hist Eccl. Lib. 6. Cap. 19. Pag. 180. Edit Paris Anno 1678. testifies That he was first a Presbyter of the same Church That Irenaeus was first a Presbyter afterwards Bishop of Lions appears from Eusebius (m) Euseb Hist Lib. 5. Cap. 4. 5. Hi ron in Catal. Scriptor Eccl. ad Script 64. speaking of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Hierom Dionysius Alexandrinus in an Epistle to Dionysius Romanus shews that he was then a Presbyter afterwards Eusebius and St. Hierom inform us (n) Euseb Lib. 7. Cap. 7. Hieron in Gatal Script 45. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he was a Bishop Irenaeus and Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret do furnish us with Catalogues of the Bishops in their respective Sees from the very Time of the Apostles to their days And St. Hierom says (o) Hieron in Epist ad Evagrium quae incrpit Legimus in Isaiah 'T is his Eighty Fifth Epistle Nam Alexandriae à Marco Evangelistâ usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant That from the time of St. Mark there was a Bishop always above Presbyters in the Church of Alexandria And all this is so very clear that none were they not most perversely biass'd by Prejudice or Interest if they be acquainted with Antiquity would question it The first Man that ever we can hear of