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
A61639	Naphtali, or, The wrestlings of the Church of Scotland for the kingdom of Christ contained in a true and short deduction thereof, from the beginning of the reformation of religion, until the year 1667 : together with the last speeches and testimonies of some who have died for the truth since the year 1660 : whereunto are also subjoyned, a relation of the sufferings and death of Mr. Hew McKail ...	Stewart, James, Sir, 1635-1713.; Stirling, James, 1631-1672?	1667 (1667)	Wing S5683; ESTC R3435	226,444	388

stirrup they had mounted the saddle of Power Promotion and Riches and from subtile dissolving the nerves or forcible breaking the Arme of Pre●bytery that they should rather have said to both as Ruth to Naom● Where th●u goest I will go where thou lodgest I will lodg thy People shall be my People and thy God my God Where thou diest I will die and there will I be buried God do so to me and more a●so if ought but death part thee and me And it may be truly said as the Church of Scotland hath had no Detractors but such as were Ignorant of her or mis-informed about her or whom Faction Partiality Prejudice Wickedness or Love of unlawful Liberty did inspire So no Person or Party hath endeavoured hithertil to root out Presbytery but the Lord hath made it a burdensome stone unto them And I am sure there is no other Form of Church Government can boast of so many Testimonies by Bl●od as Presbyterial Government might do But of all Contradicters the Church of Scotland of old and late hath only had to do within herself with Prelatists some whereof being high flown have pleaded a Jus Divinum others Antiquaries have pleaded Antiquity and many Adiaphorists of late being beaten from both these strengths have pleaded Indifferency in general and only Jus Carolinum as to this or that Species But as no eyes save their own neither these except by delusion of their se●se could ever see Prelacy that is an Ordinary Ecclesiastical Ord●r Distinct from and Superior to that of a Preaching Presbyter having the sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction in the Holy Scripture otherwise then by Prohibition to Lord it over Gods heritage or in the example of Diotrephes who loved Preheminence as many famous writing whereunto I refer the Reader unanswerably demonstrat therefore the Office being a stranger in the Word of God rather then the bras●n Serpent which once had Divine Institution should be Nehushtan in the Church So let no man Exorcist-wise adjure us by the Charming words of Antiquity Primitive times and Bishops Fathers c. For Moses we know the Prophets and Apostles we know but what is Antiquity and who are the primitive Bishops and Fathers Must men be stigmatized as giddy-headed Novellists and as much Athenian in their Principles and Professions as other m●n in their Newes or then be Implicite in-tail-following Antiquaries No there is a Medium of proving all things and holding that which is good Pure Antiquity deserveth all esteem and reverence but Simple Antiquity as such is neither a certain nor Safe Rule and much less oblieging to future times and so remote as our's are Our Lord Himself repelleth that pretence that it was said of old Were there not many Errors and Corruption● which themselves will not Justify as ancient and early in the Church yea more as Prelacy is alleaged to be We are commanded to the Law and Testimony but never to the Fathers and good reason because few or none of them were without gross errours in Judgment or Practice Are not the writings of the first Age very few or obscure Are not many of these and after Ages lost or Corrupted Yea other later writings are deceatfully emitted under the name of Ancient Times and Persons so that in such a mist it is hard to determine what was written by these Fathers what not Later Corrupt or Inadvertant writters about these former times did speak of Persons and things under the abused Names which were corruptly used in th●ir own times And the writtings of particular Persons suppose of greatest Antiquity do rather hold forth their own private Opinion or the Practice of the Time and Place wherein they lived then the Universal Judgment and Practice of the Church in all Times and Places And if they will Sanctuary themselves in primitive Times let it be cleared what is meant by Primitive For if the two first Ages be meant it is more then they can do to prove by sufficient Authority that there was then such a Prelacy as is before mentioned or now usurped and exercised If after ages be meant wherein the Church grew more corrupt and Prelacy did aspire and exalt itself to an Universal Supremacy in the Bishop of Rome and establishment of that Antichristian Hierarchy then indeed they are like themselves for twins were never more like in face then the present Prelats resemble the Romish but then it were Candor in them to tell plainly that Papacy and Prelacy are of one Original with this difference that Prelacy is the first born or rather the Father which begat the other And if they mean a Middle time betwixt these Periods wherein indeed Bishops were first known in the Church and will reckon their descent from them why are they so unlike unto them that they look neither like Sons nor Successors Ask those who have dived into these depths of Antiquity and they will tell that a present Prelat and a faithful Presbyterian Pastor or Moderator at most do little more differ then the present Prelats and these first Primitive Bishops For as it was long before such a thing was known in the Church so when thorow the Malice and Subtilty of Sathan the Ambition of some Church-men the Unwatchfulness of others and Indulgence of some Magistrats it did creep in at first it was intended and acknowledged for no more then a Prudential Humane device for greater Unity a Cure because without warrant worse then the desease which as the Apostles never prescribed in their own times though there were then many Divisions so there is alike Reason to Extend further to Papal Supremacy in the case of divisions amongst Prelats and Patriarches and had never the impudence to aspire with some present Prelats so high as a Jus Divinum At first these Primitive Bishops being Elected by other Presbyters with consent of the people and not by the Civil Magistrat only as now the Prelats are by the Kings Letter to the Dean and Chapter were Ordained by the laying on of the hands of Presbyters and rot of Bishops only as the Prelats are Their Ordination vas not Essentially different from that of Presbyters nor to an Order distinct from and Superior to that of Presbyters or Pastors as the Consecration of the Prelats is alleaged to be Neither did they though perhaps they had a negative voice usurp the sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction nor Exerce the Acts thereof without the potestative Concurrence of Other Presbyters as now the Prelats do Many of them being Holy Humble and Sober in their conversation toward the people and other Presbyters did nor with the present Prelats assume the lofty Tittles of Lordship Grace c. Nor live and ride in such state and pomp claming and taking the preference of the greatest Peeres of the Land Ordinarly and especially at the beginning they had not such vast charges as now the Prelats have Diocies over Hundreds of Pastors and many Thousands of people

Discipline promising by the Great Name of the Lord our God to continue in the Obedience of the Doctrine and Discipline thereof all the dayes of their lives Which Discipline as the foregoing Assertions do clearly discover to have been from the beginning fundamentally Presbyterial so the Model of Presbytery being now compleated and any shaddow of power that the Mock-Bishops had lately usurped being now fully abrogated it is sufficiently clear that both Prelacy is by this Covenant abjured and Presbytery owned and sworn to And really if it be further considered that the Assemblies both 1581. and 1590 while most intent and forward in the erecting of Presbyteries did enjoyn and require the same to be subscribed by all ranks of People in the Land and that these Acts were both seconded and enforced by Ordinances of King and Council it may be justly doubted whether the impudence of the succeeding Prelats in denying of the Obligation or Perjury in breaking of it be greater This is the Great Oath into which as the Lord God did bring us by the Power of his own Spirit and Truth in opposition to that Bloody Bond called the Holy League wherein Antichrist and his followers had at that time conjured themselves against the true Church of God So the Kingdom thereby became the Lords and we his peculiar people as-well by the people's subjecting of themselves and their Alleageance as by the King 's submitting Himself and his Scepter in a due Subordination unto God and our Lord Jesus Christ for the maintenance and defence of his Church and Gospell the Liberties of the Land and Ministration of Justice And this Oath and the Ordinances enjoyning it notwithstanding the many fearful violations thereof that have ensued do yet stand to this day unrepealed and declared against to the unanswerable conviction and condemnation even in their own Courts and Consciences of all it 's wicked Transgressors 6. As the Tulchan Bishops were the effect and product of the Avarice of these Lords that favoured them So the same principle of Avarice and Wickedness did again resist the Work of God when almost brought to Perfection by stirring up certain of the Nobles to re-induce Bishops for the better inhaunsing of their Benefices and the devouring of the Churches patrimony And not only for their better establishment that what they want of Divine Right and Warrant might be supplyed by the accession of the Kings power and Command but also that by their meanes the growing wickedness of these times might abound without restraint or control the Devil inciteth others of the more prophane licentious and violent Courtiers such as the Earle of Arran and his complices to move and instigat the King contrary both to the Word and Oath of God to usurp the Prerogative of Jesus Christ who is alone King in Zion and to invade His Churches Priviledges purchased for Her with His own Blood by assuming to Himself in the first and immediat Instance the cognition of Her Doctrine and Censures Which though the Church did constantly and valiantly oppose both by Petitions and Protestations yet this Wickedness did so impetously proceed that all at once in a Parliament summarily called in the Year 1582. the Prerogative of Our Lord is translated upon the King and his Jurisdiction and Empire exalted over all persons and Causes the Estate of Bishops their power and dignity confirmed the power of the General Assemblies of the Church put in the King's hand We mention not these things with any purpose to debate these questions which have been moved on this Subject Only we are confident that how extensive soever the King's power may be in the case of Reformation which Alas for the most part cometh short of it's reach yet where a Church is Regularly constituted and so acting and by Him sworn to be maintained no King or Prince ought so far to intrude Himself into Her Power and Priviledges unto which he is neither called nor gifted as to assume to Himself a Soveraign immediat power of judging and discerning upon Doctrine and her most spirituall Rights and Censures and thereby in effect not only to constitut Himself a Proper and direct Church-Officer without our Lords appointment but in stead of Papacy so justly abrogated and so solemnly abjured to erect and revive the same in Himself a Secular Person far more absurdly and intollerably We know that other formalities and notions are pretended as these of Treason Sedition and Disorder to palliat and colour this Usurpation but seing nothing spoken or acted by warrant of the Word of God can fall under the definition or pain of these crimes and that all Ministers and Ecclesiastick Courts are known allowed and presumed both to speak and act according to that only warrant and Lastly seing both the warrant is to them committed and the Church is priviledged and permitted to have it 's own proper power and cognition thereanent as it followeth by clear consequence that the things questioned must and ought to be first subjected to her tryal and cognition so none do deny the Magistrat's just right and power over both these things and persons they being once lawfully found to be destitut of the warrant pretended But seing both Scripture and Reason doth testify against this Usurpation as most unlawful in it self and injurious to our Lord Jesus and that all experiences have proven it to be most pernicious to His Church Kingdom therefore many of his faithful Servants have worthily and valiantly resisted it not only to bonds and banishment but even to blood for the Testimony of their Lord Master We return to the purpose of this observation which is to vindicat the honour of the Lord's Work and the memory of his faithful Servants in the discovery of the old malice and subtilty of the great Enemy of the Church of God working in the wicked Prelats their abettors who to the effect they may enjoy their carnall designes and prosecute their wicked lusts without controll endeavour mainly by an absolute surrender of all things powers persons and interests to flatter and exalt the King unto an illimited Soveraignty and pretended Omnipotency thereby both to oblidge and enable him the more to such acts deeds and grants as are requisite for the satisfying of their vain Ambition insatiable Covetousness and wicked lusts Which Flattery and Usurpation being not more agreeable to the vain heart of man then contrary to the Kingdom of our Lord and the Power and Purity of His blessed Gospel what wonder if his faithful Servants who can neither deny His Name nor dissobey His commands by complying with the wicked practices and the blasphemous flattery of these vile Apostats be not only hated of all men but with their Lord and Master become the continual object of the reproaches violence and cruelty of the wicked as enemies and rebells to lawful Authority Now that the World may perceav the wicked intent and design of this Prerogative that it is