Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	4,517	5	10.4419	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56257	Of the nature and qualification of religion in reference to civil society written by Samuel Puffendorff ... ; which may serve as an appendix to the author's Duty of men ; translated from the original.; De habitu religionis Christianae ad vitam civilem. English	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.; Crull, J. (Jodocus), d. 1713?; Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694. De officio hominis et civis.	1698 (1698)	Wing P4180; ESTC R6881	106,116	202

found their Auditors inclined to receive the Doctrine of the Gospel but that also in all other places whither this Doctrine was transplanted the Believers might enter into such a Society or plant a Church upon their own accord without any Commission or Permission for so doing from the Apostles but that pursuant to our Saviour's Expression it was sufficient if two or three were inclined to meet in his Name If we trace the true nature of these Societies which are constituted by a free Choice and Consent of certain Men. we may easily find to contain all of them something resembling a Democracy where such Matters as concern the whole Body of the Society are to be dispatched by common Consent and where no particular Person can claim any further Power over the rest than what he has received by their joint Consent From whence it may be rationally concluded that at the first beginning the Power of Constituting Teachers and other Ministers of the Church was originally lodged in the whole Church or the whole Congregation of the Believers And tho' it is unquestionable that in the first primitive Church Teachers were constituted by the Apostles in a great many places nevertheless the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies something of a Democracy and is often used in the Scriptures in this Case argues sufficiently that this was not done without the Approbation of the Church It would be a hard Task to prove that the Apostles did constitute Teachers themselves in all lesser Towns or that they preached the Gospel in all lesser Places and Villages It seems rather probable that the Gospel was published by the Apostles in great Cities and other places of note from whence it was communicated unto other Places and that such Churches as were not provided with Teachers Bishops or Presbyters by the Apostles themselves or their special Authority used either to chuse those very Persons to that Function who were the first Preachers of the Gospel among them or any others whom they esteemed to be endowed before others with the Gift of Teaching If we consult the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans it seems that the Gospel had been taught at Rome before ever Peter and Paul came thither And the High Treasurer of the Chap. 16. Queen Candaces who is generally believed to have first carried the Doctrine of the Gospel to Aethiopia and to have been the first Founder of the Christian Churches in those Parts received no Ordination as a Bishop or Presbyter from Philip after his Baptism Neither did Acts 8. Christ or his Apostles prescribe any certain Form to be used in the Ordination of Bishops as he did in the use of the Sacraments which seems to prove that for the obtaining of this Function there is nothing more required than for the Person to be called by the Church and to have the Gift of Teaching It is not to be denied but that the Ordination of Ministers and Imposition of Hands by the Bishops and Presbyters is a very laudable and useful Ceremony and ought to be received as such with this restriction nevertheless that the same need not to be deemed so absolutely necessary as if without it no Person ought to be taken for a true Minister of the Church especially since these miraculous Gifts which accompanied that Ceremony in the Infancy of the Primitive Church are many Ages past become useless The Church like all other Colledges 1 Tim. 4 14. have power to collect Stipends for their Ministers and to make Collections for the Use of the Poor but in a different degree from that which belongs to Civil Magistrates or Sovereigns who levy Taxes and have a Power to force their Subjects to a compliance with their Commands But in the Church this Power is founded upon the meer Liberality and free Consent of all the Believers in general who being made sensible of their Duty of paying a Workman his Stipend and relieving those in Distress ought not to refuse such Acts of Justice and Humanity It properly belongs to all 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. c. 2. 12 13. c. 9. 5 9 7. Colledges as well as Churches to have a Power to make with joint Consent of their Members such Statutes as may conduce towards the obtaining the Ends of their Society provided they do not interfere with the legal Rights of their Sovereigns Of this kind are these Statutes which St. Paul recommends to the Corinthians in his first Epistle in the 7 Chapt. If any one acted contrary to these Rules he deservedly was to receive Correction or to undergo such a Penalty as was dictated by the Statute and which was to be laid upon him not by Vertue of an Inherent Power in the Colledge but pursuant to their Contract And tho' Colledges have not any Power or Jurisdiction over their Members unless what is absolutely requisite for the obtaining the true end of each Society or else has been granted to them by their Sovereigns Nevertheless it is often practised in these Societies and may be done without prejudice to the Rights of their Sovereigns that if any Differences arise betwixt the Members of one and the same Colledge these are composed by the Interposition and Arbitration of the rest of the Members of that Colledge or Society to the End that a mutual good Correspondency may be cultivated among them In which sense is to be taken the Admonition which St. Paul gives to the Corinthians concerning this point in the 1 Epistle in the 6 Chapter in the first and following Verses Lastly because many Vices were at the time of the first publishing of the Gospel in vogue among the Heathens which were not punishable by the Pagan Laws they being more encouraged to the observance of Moral Duty by the prospect of Honours than by any civil Commands And the Christians believing it more peculiarly belonging to themselves to recommend and adorn their Profession by a holy Life and by an innocent Conversation to excel the Heathens some Statutes were at the very beginning introduced into the Primitive Church which were thought most convenient to correct all manner of Licentiousness according to St. Paul's Direction If any one that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous 1 Cor. 5. 2. or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one do not eat From whence it appears that in the primitive Times Church Censure was used in the Churches all which may easily be supposed to have been done without the least prejudice to the Sovereign Power it being always for the Interest of the State that Subjects should lead an innocent Life It is worth our Observation that the Punishments inflicted by vertue of these Statutes were of such a nature as might be put in execution without the least prejudice to the Civil Government such were private Admonitions publick Reprimands and Church Penances the extream Remedy was Excommunication by vertue of which a Member