Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	archbishop_n	bishop_n	john_n	13,096	5	6.2353	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44790	The glory of the true church, discovered, as it was in its purity in the primitive time also, a manifestation how and when the apostacy came, and how long it hath continued in the Church of Rome, proved to be in it, because she differs in doctrin & practice from the Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes : published for this end, that people may be informed, and their understandings opened to discern of the times and seasons, and see the difference between the lambs wife and the mother of harlots / by one who desires that all may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, and walk in the light of the Lord, Francis Howgill.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1661 (1661)	Wing H3162; ESTC R38990	108,097	179

gained to it when as they commanded the Parishes to buy it and then sells it them again that the Priest must have an offering at Easter also a token of a piece of lead a token that they are at unity with the Priest or else they may not have their bread and wine again for which they paid before and this hath been called a great mystery CHAP. XII Concerning Ministers and their Office under the Law and the Gospel BEfore the Law was given forth there were divers did offer sacrifice and buidled Altars unto the Lord as Seth Abel Melchizedeck Abraham Isaac and Jacob who pere guiders and directers of People in the way of righteousness who instructed their Families in the fear of the Lord But after the Law was given forth Aaron and his Sons and they were to offer sacrifice according to the command of the Lord and to perform the worship that God had appointed For that time and age at the Tabernacle and Temple there was Levites who bore the Ark and looked to the vessels and pitched the Camp and div●● other services as singers and readers of the Law and Prophets on their Sabbath dayes and Porters and the like and all these petrained to the first Covenant and Priesthood which was to have an end both the Priesthood and the Law and the service thereof for it was but to continue till the substance came Now Christ being come the end of the Law for righteousness unto all that beleive made after the order of Melchizedeck and not by a carnal commandment he offered up himself once for all and became the Author of eternal Salvation unto them that believe put an end to the first Worship and Priest-hood Before he was offered up he chose Disciples unto him Twelve and also Seventy and endued them with Power and many did Believe through their words and they were not Men of great parts but as they were sitted by the Holy Ghost that gave them utterance and they were sent out not to Preach the Law but the Word of the Kingdom and many did Believe and grew and were confirmed in the Faith and after Christs Ascention the Holy Ghost was Poured forth upon them in a more ample manner and it did bring to their remembrance as Christ had foretold and they received great Gifts for the work of the Ministry some were Prophets some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors some Teachers and all made Ministers by the Spirit for the work whereunto they were chosen and many were converted and did believe then they that had the Word of God to publish travelled as they were led and Moved by the Spirit to publish the glad tydings of the Gospel and when the Believers were many and many young in the Faith they ordained Overseers or Bishops or Elders who were sound in the Faith to watch over them that were begotten but mark they were approved men and Faithful and of blameless lives not given to covetousness neither did tirannize over them in rigour but were apt to teach and instruct in love and gentelness and they that had been Ancient Laborers in Gods Work did so who had received a Gift to Minister unto others and as to be helpers in the Work of the Gospel and all that were ordained were ordained by the Holy Ghost although its true they had the consent of the Brethren and the Church in that thing and there were also Deacons ordained which served to look to the Widows and for the Ministration of the Poor and these were faithful men and had also a gift Stephen was one full of the Holy Ghost and these were helps unto the Apostles also the●e were some Faithful Widows who were examples to younger men and to instruct them and to be patterns unto them and all was as a body knit together in love and served the Lord and strengthened one another in the faith and served one another in love and all these forementioned served the Lord freely and willingly and not for rewards and gifts and benefices and earthly things this was the state and glory of the Church in that time in short and these are the Ministers we read of in the Primitive times But since the Apostacy hath entered in and the Power hath been denied of Godliness there is such a numberless number of names crept in we never heard of then and so many offices and yet none of that work done which the Ministers of Christ did but certain new invented things brought in for worship and service and the power despised and men seeking offices and great titles and great benefits and great revenues and the heritage of God is laid waste and the earth become like a wildernesse unplanted with good and the sheep is scattered And so all may compare these ensuing names and off●es with the Apostles dayes and the primitive Church and see if they be alike First of all The Pope his holiness Christs Vicar universal Bishop Metropolitan Bishop Lord Cardinals which were but Priests at the first ordained to baptize the Heathen who came to Rome when the seat thereof began to be had in honour but now they are swelled big and become Princes and the only men to govern States also Monks of divers orders and Friars of divers orders Hieroms order of Austins order Gregorys order Carmalite Friars Cross or Crouchet Fryors of Dominicks order of S. Frances order Benets order and all of these orders sprung up and were ordained in the midnight of darkness within this four hundred years at the most as were easily proved and Trinity order and Brigandine order of Jesuites and Hermites and Anthonies order and Clunisencies order And Nuns sprung up First of one St. Clara one order then Brigidia a widow in the time of Urban the fifth in the year 1370. and all these kind of orders were distitute of the true order of the primitive Church and their service was appointed by them that ordained them and these practised the patched inventious that were given them for worship which hath not concord with the primitive Doctrine but borrowed from the Iews or Heathen And all these kind of Offices and Officers have been acting their parts this many years and led people into superstitious blindness and further from the Lord then ever But to come to the reformed Churches so called and there is so many Officers and names but few that do accord with the Apostles times either in name or nature As Metropolitan Bishops Arch-bishops lord-Lord-bishops we heard not of Lord Timothy or Lord Titus Bishops before mentioned but to come on to other Orders Arch-deacons Deans and Chapters Prebends and these must attend on some old superstitious Buildings called Cathedrals or Ministers and there performs a service somewhat like the former these are injoyned their service like the Levites and Priests of old by turns and course as once in a month or two it may be and have a hundred or two hundred pounds in the year for the same and

is come and the Restorer and reformer is come and all is to hear him or else be cut off from having any share in him who is the promise it self yea all the promises of him are yea and Amen in whom not only the Children of Abraham after the flesh but all the Children of the promise are blessed and him who fufilled the Law in whom God fulfilled his Oath who is the everlasting high Priest after Melchizedecks order he hath put an end to all oaths and swearing and all the types and shadows He saith Mat. 5. 33 34. It hath been said of old time thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform to the Lord thy oaths But I say unto you my Disciples and followers who have believed in me the true and living way who makes all things a new swear not at all neither by heaven c. Their being and generation then as now who said to swear by the greater is nothing but he that swears by the lesser is guilty he calls them hypocrites saith whosoever shal swear by the eternal the lesser sweareth by him the greater that dwelleth therein and he that sweareth by Heaven the lesser sweareth by the Throne of God and him that sitteth thereon the greater and if Christ had only forbid vain swearing and oaths as most do Ignorantly imagine he had done no more then the law had done before but t is manifest he forbids all swearing yea even by Lord for if they that swear by heaven swears by God that sits upon the Throne as he himself saith then he prohibits this also and saith I say unto you swear not at all and Jam. 5. 12. Who will know Christs mind saith above all things my Brethren swear not neither by Heaven nor by Earth now we know heaven earth comprehends all created things and yet the Apostle goes further excludes all manner of swearing saying neither any other oath and this he commands above and before all things and that upon the penalty of condemnation But much by divers hands have been written about this particular So I desire not to be large seeing we have a Cloud of witnesses wch have good assurance in themselves by Gods Spirit sealing unto them rather then swear bring condemnation upon themselves have denied their estates and liberties which lies at stake upon it but happy will they be who hath no hand in it to provoke the upright tempt them aside out of Christs way for woe will come undoubtedly upon such And that others may see it is no new thing Take a few examples of the faithful in ages past who suffered as Martyrs and it were an easie thing to bring a Cloud of witnesses out of the Ecclesiastical Histories of them that denied all swearing in divers ages I shall instance only a few Policarpus who was as it is said Johns Disciple had been a Christian eighty nine years when he came to suffer martyrdom the Proconsul requiring him to swear by the Emperours good fortune and by Caesars prosperity which was the custome of the Romans at that time divers Heathen Emperours set up their own Images to be worshipped and their persons to be sworn by but Policarpus denied and said he was a Christian and would show forth the doctrine of Christiany if he desired the same if the Proconsul would appoint a day and hear it so at that time it seems Christians did not swear as afterwards they did in the Apostacy And Basillides a Souldier and afterwards a Martyr being required to swear affirmed plainly that it was not lawful for him to swear for that he was a Christian so it seems that it was the mark of a Christian not to swear And the Waldenses or Leonists whose names are so famous amongst the reformed Churches who are said immediatly to succeed the Apostles were the most antient and true Protestants professed it to be as way Lawfull for a Christian to swear In defence of whom in this very thing Bishop Usher late Bishop of Armagh Primate of Ireland pleaded their cause against the Papists and Jesuites who are the swearers and breakers of Oaths and yet pleads for swearing And the plow-man in his prayer which is so much Esteemed of commended in the Book of Martyrs saith Lord thou givest us a Commandment of truth it bidding us say yea yea and nay nay and swear for nothing thou givest us also a Commandment of meekness and another of poorness But Lord he that calls himself thy Vicar on Earth hath broken both these Commandments for he maketh a Law to compel men to swear Fol. 585. And it is one of John Wickliss Articles whose works was as much esteemed of by the Protestants in England and Bohemia as dispised by the Papists and their Clergy having his bones taken up and burned fourty one years after his decease his books and these articles condemned by the Council of Constance who also burned John Hus and Jerome of Prauge for holding John Wickliss opinions that ●aths which he made for any Contract or civil bargain betwixt man and man be unlawful And Walter Brute a Teacher among the people of God in that age by scorners called the Devils Servants called Lolards against whom the Pope and the King Richard the second and then the ungodly Bishops make so much a do to have the name of Truth extinguished and the professors there cut off This is Walters Testimony As concerning Oaths I believe and obey the Doctrine of Almighty God my master Christ Jesus which teacheth that Christian men in affirmation of a Truth should pass the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees of the old Testament or else he excludeth them from the Kingdom of Heaven For he saith except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and as concerning Oaths he saith it hath been said of old time thou shalt not for swear thy self but shalt perform those things unto the Lord thou knowest but I say unto you thou shalt not swear at al neither by Heaven nor by Earth c. But let your Communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more then this cometh of evil therefore as the perfection of ancient men of the old Testament was not to for swear themselves so the perfection of Christian men is not to swear at all because they are so commanded of Christ whose Commandment in no case must be broken although the City of Rome is contrary to this doctrine of Christ c. A good Testimony of a blessed Martyr Here it appeareth that the Swearing which Christ forbids is not only prophane swearing in the communication for that was forbidden in the law where it s said thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain c. But solemn swearing which was to be performed that was the perfection of law And Kings