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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59901	A vindication of some Protestant principles of Church-unity and Catholick-communion, from the charge of agreement with the Church of Rome in answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, an agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, evinced from the concertation of some of her sons with their brethren the dissenters / by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3372; ESTC R32140	78,758	130

consisting of particular Churches as of integral Parts But now the Apostle makes every particular Church to be such an organized Body consisting of all the integral Parts of a Church a Bishop Presbyters Deacons and faithful People and therefore particular Churches are not properly organized Parts of the Catholick Church as the hands or legs are of a humane Body which is made up of several other members of a different nature but as organized wholes every particular Church being a complete and entire Church not a part of a Church and the Catholick Church is considered as one not so much by uniting all particular Churches considered as particular Churches which is to unite a great many wholes together to make one whole which is perfectly unintelligible but by uniting the several parts of which each particular Church consists into one they being the same in all and this makes one organized Catholick Church of the same nature and constitution the same Officers and Members with every particular organized Church As for instance A particular organized Church as I have now observed consists of a Bishop Presbyters Deacons and faithful People and the whole Catholick Church consists of the same Parts and can have no other and yet there are no Bishops Presbyters Deacons Christian People to make up this Catholick Church but what belong to some particular Churches and yet particular Churches are not Parts of a Church but compleat entire Churches as having all the integral Parts of a perfect Church and therefore particular organiz'd Churches cannot make up a whole Church as the several Parts make a whole Body because they are each of them a whole where then shall we find Bishops Presbyters Deacons People to make up one Catholick Church Now in this case there can be no other Notion of the Catholick Church but the Union of the same Parts of all particular Churches into One and then the Union of all these united Parts into one Body makes the one Catholick Church As to explain this briefly St. Cyprian tells us that there is but one Episcopacy or one Bishoprick as I have already shown and therefore all the Bishops who are now dispersed over all the World and have the Supream Government of their particular Churches must be reckoned but one Bishop for thô their natural Persons are distinct they are but one Ecclesiastical Person their Office Power and Dignity being one and the same not divided into Parts but exercised by all of them in their several Churches with the same fulness and plenitude of Power and thus we have found out one Bishop for the one Catholick Church all the Bishops in the World being but one for thô they are many distinct Persons they are but one Power and exercise the same Office without Division or Multiplication And thus all the Presbyters in the World who are under the Direction and Government of their several Bishops are but one Presbytery of the Catholick Church for if the Episcopacy be but one the Presbytery must be but one also in subordination to this one Episcopacy the like may be said of Deacons and of Christian People that they are but one Body and Communion under one Bishop Where there is but one Bishop there can be but one Church and therefore one Episcopacy unites all Christians into one Body and Communion How this is consistant with the many Schisms and Divisions of the Christian Church shall be accounted for else-where This is a plain intelligible account how all the particular Churches in the World are but one Church because all the Parts and Members which answer to each other in these particular Churches are but one by the Institution of Christ All their Bishops but one Bishop all their Presbyters but one Presbytery all the Christians of particular Churches but one Body and Communion and thus the Catholick Church is an organized Body consisting of the same parts that all particular Churches consist of Just as if Five Thousand Men whose Bodies have all the same Members should by a coalition of corresponding Parts grow up into one Body that all their Heads their Arms their Legs c. should grow into one which would make a kind of Universal organized Body of the same nature with what every single individual Man has And that there can be no other Notion of the Catholick Church as considered in this World Ethink is very plain from this that there is but one Notion of a Church and therefore the Catholick Church and particular Churches must have the very same Nature and integral Parts If a Bishop Presbyters and Christian People make a particular Church there must be the very same parts in the Catholick Church or you must shew us two distinct Notions of a Church and that the Catholick and particular Churches differ in their essential Constitution If the Notion be the same and all particular Churches constitute the Catholick Church then these particular Churches must constitute the Catholick Church just as they are constituted themselves that is of Bishops Presbyters and People and therefore all the Bishops of particular Churches must make but one Catholick Episcopacy all the Presbyters but one Presbytery all the Christian People but one Body and Communion and then the Catholick Church and particular Churches are exactly the same one Body of Bishops Presbyters and People And this utterly destroys all subordination between Bishops for if to the Notion of the Catholick Church all Bishops must be considered as one than every Bishop must be equal for an inferior and superior Bishop cannot be one And if the Notion of the Catholick Church did require one Supream Oecumenical Pastor to whom all particular Bishops are subordinate then the Catholick and particular Churches are not of the same Species for the one has a soveraign the other a subordinate Head and therefore is not a compleat and perfect Church nor of the same kind with the Church which has the soveraign Head. And thus I think I might safely dismiss all our Author's Criticisms about the several kinds of Totums which he has transcribed from the Independent Copy excepting some peculiar Absurdities of his own For the Catholick Church properly speaking is no Totum at all with respect to particular Churches which are not properly Parts of the Catholick Church considered as particular organized Churches but the Catholick Church is one Church by the Union of all the corresponding Parts of particular Churches which we have no example of that I know in Nature nor is it to be expected to find the exemplars of such Mystical Unions in Nature which depend not upon Nature but upon Institution but it may not be amiss briefly to show our Author 's great skill in such matters He takes it for granted that the Church Catholick must be some kind of Totum or whole and therefore undertakes to prove that in all Totums there must be a Subordination of parts and therefore there must be a Supreme Oecumenical Pastor in the Catholick

highest Priest and Optatus Apices Principes the Tops and Princes of all which was the general Language of those days as any one who pleases may learn from Dr. Barrow's learned Treatise of the Popes Supremacy And as Bishops were the highest Governours of the Church so every Bishop was greatest in his own Diocess no other Bishop nor Synod of Bishops could impose any thing on him without his own Consent they met for Advice and Counsel not for Rule and Empire which Mr. B. tells us so often was Arch-bishop Usher's Judgment and which plainly was the Judgment and Practice of Antiquity as appears from what I have already discoursed about Catholick Communi on It were easie to transcribe several Passages out of St. Cyprian to this purpose especially from his Preface to the Council of Carthage where he tells them That they were met freely to declare their Opinions about this matter the Rebaptization of those who had been Baptized by Hereticks judging no man nor denying Communion to him if he dissent For neither doth any of us constitute himself Bishop of Bishops or by tyrannical terror compel his Colleagues to a necessity of obeying since every Bishop being free and in his own power has his own free choice and can neither be judged by another nor judg another but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Iesus Christ who alone has power both to advance us to the Government of his Church and judg of our Government and in p. 579. I add Nor does this overthrow that very Ancient Constitution of Patriarchal or Metropolitan Churches for a Patriarch or Metropolitan was not a Superior Order to Bishops nor included any Authority over them as is evident from what St. Cyprian discoursed who was himself a Primate but only some precedency in the same Order and such advantages of Power in the Government of the Church as was given them by the common consent of Bishops for a greater publick good as the power of calling Provincial Synods and presiding in them and a principal Interest in the Ordination of Bishops in his Province and the like which were determined and limited by Ecclesiastical Canons It is true this Patriarchal Power did in time degenerate into Domination and Empire when it fell into the hands of ambitious men but was originally and is so still when wise and good men have the management of it a very prudent constitution to preserve Peace and Order and good Discipline in the Church But that Arch-bishops and Metropolitans had no proper Superiority and Jurisdiction over Bishops is evident from what St. Hierom objects against the Discipline of the Montenists Amongsts us i. e. the Catholicks the Bishops enjoy the place of the Apostles among them the Bishop is but the third for they have the Patriarch of Pepusa in Phrygia for the first those whom they call Cenones for the second thus Bishops are thrust down into the third that is almost the last place And yet in St. Hieroms time the Catholick Church had Archbishops and Metropolitans but yet it seems not such as degraded Bishops or advanced any above them Whether this be true Reasoning or no shall be examined when there is occasion for it all that I am concerned in at present is only to show that I never asserted such an Original Combination of Metropolitical Churches as placed Bishops in subordination to the Metropolitan or gave him a direct Authority or Jurisdiction over them and here our Agreement must for ever break off for if it will not reach to the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans and Primates much less will it extend to Patriarchs and least of all to an Oecumenical Pastor whom I have in express terms rejected and for what reason will appear anon 3. The next instance of Agreement is That we both agree in giving to a General Council direct Authority over their Collegues in matters that concern the Purity of Faith and Manners and the Unity of the Church But here are two considerable Mistakes in this Matter 1. That I give this Authority to a General Council 2. That I give a General Council or any other Combination of Bishops a direct Authority over their Collegues 1. That I give this Authority to General Councils My Dissenting Adversaries began this Charge that I set up a General Council as a Superior Governing Power over the whole Church and consequently over all Bishops and therefore was no better than a Cassandrian or a French Papist and our Author revives this charge without taking any notice that it was ever Objected and Answered before indeed he has Objected nothing in this whole matter but what was before Objected by Dissenters with as much Art and appearance of Truth as he has now given it And I could more easily forgive it in them because it might be an innocent mistake in them till these notions were thoroughly sifted and set in a better light but for our Author to read that very Book The Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet wherein all these Objections were made and Answered and to renew the Charge and repeat the Objections again without taking notice of any Answer that was given to them is such a piece of Ingenuity as an honest Dissenter would be ashamed of In my Defence of the Dean there was not one word which looked towards a General Council excepting the Collegium Episcopale or the Episcopal Colledg which some mistook for a General Council but this mistake I rectified in the Vindication p. 146. I observed that Optatus called the whole body of Bishops Collegium Episcopale and upon the same account St. Cyprian and St. Austin call all Catholick Bishops Collegues and they may as well say That when the Fathers speak of the Unity of the Episcopacy they mean their Union in a General Council as that they mean a General Council by the Colledg of Bishops In St. Cyprians time there never had been a General Council excepting the Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem and yet when he wrote to forreign Bishops with whom he never was joined in Council nor ever like to be he calls them his Collegues or those of the same Colledg with him which signifies no more than that they were of the same Power and Authority with him and united in one Communion And what my thoughts are of a General Council whoever pleases may see some Pages after p. 162 163 c. 2. Nor do I give a direct Authority to any Bishops or Council of Bishops over their Collegues This I expresly deny in Forty places as to be sure every man must do who acknowldges that all Bishops have originally an equal power and the Supreme Authority in their respective Diocesses That no Bishops either single or united have any direct Authority or Superiority over each other That the combinations of Churches and the Synods and Councils of Bishops are not for direct acts of Government and Superiority over each other with several other