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	ordain_v	presbyter_n	6,414	5	11.1866	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61864	Presbyteries triall, or, The occasion and motives of conversion to the Catholique faith of a person of quality in Scotland ; to which is svbioyned, A little tovch-stone of the Presbyterian covenant	W. S. (William Stuart), d. 1677.; W. S. (William Stuart), d. 1677. A little tovch-stone of the Scottish Covenant.	1657 (1657)	Wing S6028; ESTC R26948	309,680	599

first Reformation and to restore Episcopacy So that it 's very evident that the Presbyterians do falsly pretend that Episcopacy or Superiority of Pastors is against the purity of their first Reformation and that parity of Ministers or Presbyterian governement is conform to it the contrary being most certaine out of their owne Records Next I found they came as little speed of their pretence of the word of God which is so far from condemning Episcopacy as evil and Anti-Christian that it rather commends it as good and Christian 3. Tim. ch 3. v. 1. S Paul writing to Timothee saith This is a true or faithfull saying If a man desire a Bishops office he desireth a good worke And that we may not contend about names I find the same S. Paul acknowledging in Timothee the power of iudging and ordaining Presbyters in which the power and Svperiority of Bishops principally consists For in the 5. chap. of the same epistle he saith Against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but vnder two or three witnesses And ver 22. Lay not thy hands suddenly on no man He sheweth also that he had left Titus in the isle of Crete to ordaine Priests by cities Tit. ch 1. v. 5. By this I saw as I conceived clearly enough that all Pastors are not equall but some are Superiour to others and that a Bishop and a Minister is not the same as the Presbyterians do pretend since the one hath power to iudge and ordaine which the other hath not Therevpon I made this observation If it be a true or faithfull saying as the Apostle speaks to call the office of Bishop good Then it is neither a true nor faithfull saying to call it evil as the Presbyterians speaks If the office of Bishop be a good worke then it was no good worke in the Presbyterians to condemn it as Anti-Christian For that is not only to contradict the Scripture but also to incurre the curse threatned by the Prophet Esay 5.20 Wo vnto them who call's evil good and good evil More over Christ himself did institute diverse degrees of Pastors in his Church when he choosed 12. Apostles Luce c. 6. and thereafter 72. Disciples Now it appear'd very evident vnto me that as the Apostles were distinguished from the Disciples by their diverse institution Luce c. 10. number and more intire familiarity with Christ by whom they were privily instructed so they were in a higher degree and dignity above the other Disciples which truth is much illustrated and confirmed by the solemn assumption of Matthias who was before one of the Disciples vnto the Apostle ship Act. 1. or as S. Peter sheweth out of the Psalmes the Bishoprike of Iudas Lastly God did institute in the old Testament diverse degrees of the high Priests the other Priests and Levits as Calvin himself confesseth Therefore it seem'd vnto me there was no repugnancy Cal. lib. 4. Inst c. 6. §. 2. why the like goodly Order and Subordination of Pastors might not also be in the new Testament yea rather all reason doth require that these things ought to be in the Church of Christ and that more excellently and perfectly then in the Synagogue of the Iewes since this is but a shaddow and type of the other But although the Scriptures being duely considered seemed clear enough in this matter yet for more security and to take away endlesse ianglings and wranglings which some contentious heads makes vpon the clearest words of Scripture I had my next recours vnto the interpretation of the holy Fathers practise of the Primitive Church And I found that they did not only vnderstand the Scriptures for the Superiority of Bishops over other Pastours but also they condemned the contrary opinion as a wicked heresy in Aerius S. Augustin Aug. lib. 19. de Ciu. c. 19. explaining these words of S. Paul above cited who desireth a Bishops Office desireth a good worke saith the Apostle would shew what the Office of a Bishop is for it 's a name of of labour and not of honour that he may know himself not to be a Bishop Who delights to preside not to profite Hier. ap Cornel in hunc loc S. Hierom sheweth that in the primitive Church the Office of a Bishop was the next degree to Martyrdome for Bishops being the chiefe Leaders of Christians were most diligently searched out persecuted by the Pagans Therefore the Office of a Bishop being so high and excellent so hard dangerous it was no wonder that the Apostle did require so many excellent vertues and qualities in any Dion lib. de Eccles hier c. 5. who desireth that office which he call's a good worke I will only adde to these two most ancient Fathers for confirmation of this truth S. Denys Arcopagita the disciple of S. Paul describing the Hierarchy instituted by God in the Church putteth the Bishops in the first place the Priests in the second and the Ministers or Deacons in the third And S. Ignatius the disciple also of the Apostles and Bishop of Antioch doth shew this excellent subordination of Pastours in the Church for thus he writes in one of his epistles Priests be subiect vnto your Bishop Deacons vnto Priests Ignat. epist ad Ta●sens and you people vnto Priests and Deacons Who shall observe this comelinesse of Order I would willingly change my Soule with theirs and our Lord be with them for ever The Presbyterians have not only not observed that comelinesse of Order but they have condemn'd it and brought in the vglinesse of confusion and therefore they want this holy Martyrs benediction The holy Fathers also do constantly teach that the Bishops do succeed vnto the Apostles and the Priests vnto the 70. Disciples and therefore the Bishops are greater then the Priests Yea the most eminent among all the holy Fathers were Bishops although diverse of them were advanced to that dignity much against their will And besids all these testimonies I found the practice of the whole primitive Church which was alwayes governed by B shops from the beginning I must professe that considering all these things I was fully satisfyed and resolved not to abandon all these authorities of Scriptures Fathers and the whole ancient Church for the Ministers strong cry's and bare words which they only bring against them all I was much confirmed in this resolution when I found the contrary opinion concerning parity of Pastours which is now maintayn'd by the Presbyterians to be condemned as an ancient heresy by the holy Fathers S. Epiphanius writes thus of Aerius His speech was more furious then became any man for he said what differs a Bishop from a Priest there is no difference the order is one the honour one and the dignity is the same And confuting it a little after Epiph. haeres 75. he saith That this matter is full of fully is manifest to all wise men For that a Bishop and a Priest are not

by all the Puritians other Protestants do sharply inveigh Saravia saith that it 's a doctrine full of danger Saravia in defen cont Bez. p. 73. Prot. Apol. tract ● c. 2. sect 3. subd 2 of a new and evil example and vpholden by no testimony of the Scripture Diverse other Protestants cited in the Protestants Apologie reiect this extraordinary vocation as fanatical and opening a way to all seducers who may make the same pretext And now the Presbyterians find by sad experience that the Independents Anabaptists and others make vse of it against themselvs But that Calvin and his followers had no extraordinary vocation may be easily shown For vnto that there are two things requisite according to the examples recorded in the Scriptures First that God speak sensibly vnto one whom he is to call extraordinarly as he did to Moyses Elias S. Paul Secondly That he make that appeare by some miracle The first is not sufficient without the second To which may be ioynd a third condition to witt holynesse of life doctrin which becomes Gods extraordinary Ambassadours without which even their miracles ought to be suspected Now not only one but all these conditions were visibly deficient in Calvin the other pretended Reformers For never any of them was so impudent as to say that God spake sensibly to them albeit Luther confesseth that the Devil conferred oftner then once with him Erasm in diatrib● de lib. arb Then they were so impotēt of working miracles that Erasmus obiects to them They were never as yet able so much as to cure a lame horse Lastly their lives were not extraordinary for holynesse befitting an extraordinary Vocation as we have seen above Luthers sentence against Mu●ster Luth ●● Senat M ●us makes also against Calvin If he pretend saith Luther that he is sent by God as the Apostles let him prove that by doing signes and miracles for where ever God will change the ordinary way there always he works miracles Lastly the late Church of England pretended a succession lawfull Vocation of her Pastors Mason of the consecration epist de dicatorie above all other Protestants For so Mr Mason praiseth and admireth the sweet and singular providence of God towards the new Church of England that when other reformed Church as were enforced through necessity to admit extraordinary Fathers or Ordainers that is to receive ordination from inferiour Ministers or Priests yet the Church of England had alwayes Bishops who according to the ordinary and most secure custom of the Church had conferred holy Orders But this pretence is also false and frivolous For either the first Protestant Bishops in Queen Elizabeth time were ordaind by the Catholique Bishops or had their Vocation from some others Sander de schis Angl. Champ. de Voca● Ministrorum as from the Queen and Parliament The first cannot be said For both Sanderus and Dr. Champn●y show that the Catholique Bishops choosed rather to die in prison as they did then to impose their hands vpon the Queens new design'd Protestant Bishops Besids M. Whitaker and Fulk renounce the Catholique ordination as vnlawfull albeit all the more late Diuines of the English Church had their recourse vnto it in so much that Fulk expresseth himself very passionatly thus We with our whole heart Fulk in re●ent a pud Brairlie tr 2. c. 2 sect 6. ad D● renounce abhorre detest and spit at your filthie Anti-Christian Orders So full of confusion are they in this matter that what some of their greatest Divins esteem their greatest glory others no lesse famous among them think their greatest shame Moreover albeit the Catholique Bishops were granted to have imposed their hands on the first Protestant Bishops yet by that ordination they made them only Catholique and not Protestant Bishops for the Church in all reason and common sense cannot give a lawfull Vocation to any Pastors to preach and act against her self Therefore if these first Bishops of the late English Church were Protestants when they were ordain'd they were not lawfully ordaind and if they became thereafter Protestants they lost all lawfull exercice of their power of ordination when they vsed it against that Church from which they pretend to derive their lawfull vocation Lastly the first Protestant Bishops in King Edward the sixth or Queen Elizabeths time succeeded to no other Protestant Bishops much lesse can they show their succession vnto the Apostles as is requisite to make them lawfull and Apostolical Bishops If it be said that the first Protestant Bishops were made by vertue of the King or Queens supremacie and by act of parliament This is not the way prescryved in the Scripture which has been always observed in the Church And if these English Bishops Pastors had no more sure ground for their vocation then the Royal Supremacy it is no wonder that they are both falne together and that one Parliament has ransacted what others had enacted So we see that the late English Church has been resolved into the same principles of which it was first composed as by the same iust iudgment the Presbyterians who pretend an extraordinary vocation are almost subverted by the Independents Anabaptists vpon the same pretext It rests that I speak now a word of our Scottish Ministers Vocation which I found as groundlesse and more ridiculous then any of the rest For besids that the most part of them at the beginning were vnlettered men and had no other Vocation to be Ministers then that which the Presbyterians blame now in the Independents the Vocation of M. Xnox our great Reformer seems very strange as it is described in his own Chronicle In one thing indeed he shew himself more Scrupulous then Luther for although he had been ordain'd a Roman Priest yet he thought not without reason that his Popish orders gave him no lawfull Vocation to be a Protestant Minister and therefore he expected another call which was given him after this manner Some discontented Protestants having conspired together had cruelly kill'd Spots woods in his history c. as a Protestant Author speaks Cardinal Beaton within his own house the castle of S. Andrewes possessing themselvs of all the Cardinals riches and thereafter kept out the Castle in rebellion against the State To this place of security M. Knox had his refuge carying along with him some Gentlemens children whom he instructed in the Grammar and new Catechisme Knox Chron. p. 74. 75 His book saith that when these within the Castle perceived the manner of his doctrin they dealt earnestly with him to take vpon him the function of a Preacher But he refused alledging he would not run where God had not sent him meaning that he would do nothing without a lawfull calling Wherevpon they going to a private Councel resolve or give a charge publickly to M. Knox by the mouth of their preacher Iohn Rough which was done at the next Sermon as it is there at more