Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	12,399	5	9.7424	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45405	Considerations of present use, concerning the danger resulting from the change of our church-government	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1682 (1682)	Wing H528; ESTC R11941	9,937	23

of the great fruits of Government and if it may be agreed that it is very expedient and will be taken in good part that Governours hereafter be more severe as well as more diligent more couragious as well as more laborious in using the Weapons of their warfare to cut off or to cure without any respect of persons wheresoever there is need of them I shall hope this objection will then be throughly Answered if as yet it be not A second consideration apportioned to the former head will be this whether supposing Government of the Church to be a considerable part of Religion the change of it from Established Episcopacy to any other namely to that of Prebytery by many without any Superiour over them or as that is opposite to Episcopacy be not a sin against Religion That it is or will be so I shall endeavour to convince the gainsayer by these steps or degrees of proof which though perhaps not each single yet all being put together will I believe where prejudice doth not hinder be sufficient to doe it 1. Because this Government by Bishops superiour to Presbyters is of Apostolical Institution But this being an affirmation as demonstrable by Ecclesiastical Records as any thing can be or as the Canon of Scripture which we receive is demonstrated to be the Canon of Scripture and in regard it hath by others been sufficiently proved I shall therefore wholly spare the repeating of that trouble and add unto it 2. That it hath the example though not the distinct precept of Christ who with his twelve Apostles and the many other Disciples in time of his residence upon Earth superiour one to the other are the copy of which the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the following Age were a transcript who are therefore by St. Ignatius S. Johns Contemporary allowed to receive honour the Bishops as Christ the Presbyters as the Apostles the Deacons as the Seventy 3. That as far as concerns superiority of one order to the other which is sufficient to eject the Presbytery which supposes an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or equality of all it is Authorized by sacred Scripture-practise where it appears that when Judas fell from his orbe of motion the dignity of being one of the Twelve is by the direction of the Spirit and by lot bestowed upon Matthias who though before a Disciple of Christ was not till then assumed to that dignity Fourthly that supposing it to be in this manner Apostolical there is little colour of reason to doubt but that the preserving of it is of as great moment as many Doctrines of Christianity not only because many doctrines were not so explicitely delivered by Christ but that they needed farther explicating by the Apostles and are therefore by the Church grounded not in any words of the Gospel but in the Epistles of the Apostles but also because it was in Gods providence thought fit that Government should be setled not by Christ personally but by the Apostles that is mediately by Christ as doctrine was by Christ immediately Christ in his life time gives them the ground of a Church divine truth the word of his Father the acknowledgment of which is the rock on which his Church is built on this the Apostles are to build and gather members and to settle the whole edifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ordinately and that they may not err in that work the Holy Ghost is promised to descend upon them and Christ by that power of his to be with them in eminent manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of the world And Government being necessary to the setling was undoubtedly thus referred and left to them by CHRIST and so their Authority in instituting that which they instituted as evidently deduced from CHRIST as their power of Preaching what they preached or baptising whom they baptised And having gone thus far I cannot but resume my consideration thus far made more considerable and appeal to any sober conscience whether it be not some irreligion thus to displace or remove that which the Apostles to whom only by Christ it was intrusted according to Christs own Samplar and Scripture-grounds thought fit to settle in the Church supposing it to be a matter of Religion which is spoken of as before we proved nay whether if an Angel from Heaven were to be anathematized for teaching any other Doctrine than what one Apostle had taught it would not be matter of just terrour to any that should have any part in the guilt of instituting any other Government than that which the Appostles had instituted especially when the acts of Councels tell us that what S. Paul denounces against the heterodox Angel the Church did practise against Aerius anathematized him for impugning this Government which now we speak of And if still the Authority of all this be blemisht by this one exception that this institution af the Appostles is not affirmed in Scripture or there commanded to posterity to continue and retain for ever To this I answer by saying that which may be a fourth Argument to prove the irreligiousness of such change That there is as much or more to be said in both those respects both for mention of this institution in Scripture and for Apostolical precept for continuing of it for this Government as for some other things whose chang would be acknowledged very irreligious I will only instance in one the Institution of the Lords day of which there is nothing can be said to the setting up the Authority and immutability of it which will not be said of Episcopacy A ground of it there was in nature some Time to be set a part to the special publick service of God and the like ground there is in nature for this that some Persons should be designed to and rewarded for the special publick service of God A pattern of that there was among the Jews one day in the seven designed for Gods Quotum or portion the like pattern there is among the Jews for this a Government by High-Priests and Levites That was an Institution not of Christ in his life time immediately but of his Apostles after his departure invested with such power the like Institution there is of this by the same Apostles after Christs Ascension directed and assisted by the holy Ghost The occasion of pitching on the first day of the week was a solemn action of Christ his Resurrection on that day the occasion of this the several distinct orders in the Church in Christs time Christs Apostles Disciples and the manifest superiority of him before all of them who affirms himself their Lord even when he speaks of his office Ministerial his coming to Minister to them and of the Apostles before the Disciples as even now was shewed The mention of that was found once in the Revelation distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day and twice or thrice in equipollent terms the first day of the week and the mention

of Episcopacy is as clear the Angel of the Church of Ephesus c. in the Revelation which hath been cleared by irrefragable evidence to belong to this matter and the Ruling Elder in S. Paul that must have double honour and Titus left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting and to ordain Elders in every Church and many other more clear mentions of the serveral titles and officies of Bishop Preshyter and Deacon than there is of the name and duties of the Lords day The obscure mentions of that in Scripture were explained in the writings and Stories of the first age of the Church particularly in the Epistiles of Ignatius and the obscurities of the Sacred Texts concerning Episcopacy are as clearly explicated and unfolded by the same Ignatius even in every one of those Epistles of his which Vedelius as great an enemy of this Order as Geneva hath produced any after his fiery tryal of that Author hath acknowledged to be his The use of that continued from the Apostles time though not universally till the Jewish Sabbath was fairly laid a sleep till these days in the universal Church and all perticular Churches that we read of and the like use and practise of this continued universall without any exception from the Apostles time till this day in the universal Church as that signifies the Eastern and the Western Church and in each particular Church till about this last Century and in this of ours from the plantation of the Gospel till this day These are paralless enough to even the ballance and I profess to know no one more which might weigh it down on that side and to make it now seasonable to demand whether it would not be thought an act contrary to Religion whether that signifies Christian Piety or meekness or awe to all that is Sacred for any particular National Church or part thereof without any more warrant then is now offered for this present change to remove the service of God from the Lords day to any other day in the week which sure is as small a differnce as that betwixt Presbyterial and Episcopal Government can by any be conceived to be or instead of our first day of the week to set apart either an eight or a sixt day and so to change that Apostolical institution If that seem strange or be startled at as unfit to be ventured on or yielded to I shall desire the same plea may be entred for this and that conscience may be secured that either both are lawfull or that the difference is clear and the advantage on the Lords days side or that it may be resolved that this is unlawfull as well as that A fift Argument will be this That the making or yielding to this change will be a scandal very worthy to be considered in them that so yield toward those which oppose this Government as unlawful for this yielding will be an appearing acknowledgement that their contrary Pretentions are true and so a confirming them in their errour which is no light one but the same for which Aerius was and any other apposer would certainly have been anathematized and turned out of the Catholick Church for an Heretick which is one special kind of Scandalizing or occasioning the fall of our Brethren and withall a nourishing them in their uncharitable opinion not only of us but of the ancient Fathers of the Church who were all Antichristian if this be so which is another causing my Brother to offend nay a kind of countenancing that unchristian am sure unprotestant Doctrine of the lawfulness of taking up Arms against lawfull Superiours and Establisht Lawes and propagating our opinions in Religion by that means which perchance some may be betrayed to by this example others brought to believe consentaneous to Protestant Doctrine if they which are thus guilty be thus gratified which as it were a change in our Doctrine if it were really acknowledged so is it in this respect another act of Scandall if it thus aprear to be acknowledged and that which would make any Heathen Prince unwilling to embrace our Religion if this disloyal perswasion were conceived to be a part of it A sixt Argument which to me is of no small force I will yet but name and refer it to others to consider of That no man is a Priest or lawfully ordained Minister of any Christian Church but he that is called and sent by God that there is now no way in this Kingdome to have that calling or mission duly but from Bishops who are the only persons who have their power of Ordaining others given to them in their assumption to that Order by those who had it before and can drive it from the Apostles who had it immediatly from Heaven and whatsoever other power a Priest or Preshyter may be thought or said to have common with a Bishop it is yet the constant judgment of the universal Church for 1500 years that this of Ordination is not competible to one or more bare Presbyters without a Bishop and it will be easie to satisfie any reasonable man in whatsoever may be produced of sound or probability to the contrary and therefore if any Office or Order or Ministry in the Church be considerable this which is the standing well-head and spring of all the other must be thought so also Having premised these Arguments of so much weight sufficient to support the burthen designed to them I shall add ex abundante some inferior ones though they amount not so far as alone of themselves to conclude it direct irreligion yet to add to the former heap some aggravations As 1. That to yield to this change is to disclaim those blessed means of Gods providence which brought us to our Baptisme to all our spiritual life and growth that we have attained to and that is a great ingratitude to that Government 2. It is an act of pride and insolency to prefer any scheme of humane and modern invention before that which the Apostles the Primitive and for so many years the Vniversal Church had authorized and therefore I could almost adventure to believe that the framers of the Covenant had obliged themselves secretly to maintain Episcopacy by putting in those words the best Reformed Churches that I might escape thinking them so insolent as to prefer any Churches before those which they cannot but know have used Episcopacy 3. It ia a great tempting of Gods providence in not being contented with that Form which hath prospered so happily with us and the whole Christian World though subject as all that is humane or mixt with flesh is even the very grace of God in us to be abused any putting it to the adventure whatsoever inconveniences the next may be subject to Of the inconveniences that Presbytery doth infallibly bring along with it and the unreconcilableness of them with Monarchical Government in the State sufficient evidences have been given and if there were no other but this