Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	bishop_n	church_n	deacon_n	6,554	5	10.6252	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26103	A collection of svndry petitions presented to the Kings Most Excellent Majestie as also to the two most honourable houses, now assembled in Parliament, and others, already signed, by most of the gentry, ministers, and free-holders of severall counties, in behalfe of episcopacie, liturgie, and supportation of church-revenues, and suppression of schismaticks / collected by a faithful lover of the church, for the comfort of the dejected clergy, and all moderately affected Protestants.	Aston, Thomas, Sir, 1600-1645.; Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1642 (1642)	Wing A4073; ESTC R208748	30,703	48

should teach conformity to established Lawes but in contempt thereof in many places wholly neglected All these dayly practised with confidence without punishment To the great dejection of many sound Protestants and occasioning so great insultation and rejoycing in some Separatists as they not onely seeme to portend but menace some great alteration And not containing themselves within the bounds of Civill Government doe commit many tumultuous if not Sacrilegious violences both by day and night upon divers Churches Therefore your Petitioners being all very apprehensive of the dangerous consequences of Innovation and much scandalized at the present disorders Doe all unanimously pray That there bee admitted no Innovation of Doctrine or Liturgy that holy publike Service being so fast rooted by a long setled continuance in this Church that in our Opinion and Judgements it cannot bee altered unlesse by the advice and consent of some Nationall Synode without an universall discontent And that some speedy course bee taken to suppresse such Schismatiques and Separatists whose factious Spirits doe evidently endanger the peace both of Church and State And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. The Petition signed by Lords Knights Iustices of the Peace and Esquires 94. By Gentlemen of quality 440. By Divines 86. By Freeholders and others in all 8936. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty And to the High Court of Parliament The humble Petition of Colledges and Halls and others well-willers to Piety and Learning throughout the Kingdome of England Sheweth THat whereas many Persons dis-affected to the present forme of Government of the Church of England established not onely by the Ecclesiasticall but also by the Common Law of this Realme and diverse Acts of Parliament have of late in great multitudes petitioned this Honourable Court against the Orders Honour Iurisdiction and meanes of the Clergy And have published such their desires in print and Pulpit and dayly seeke to advance and propagate the same To the great disheartning of all Learning if such designes find favour the grievous scandall of the Reformed Religion as unstable and the unspeakeable advantage of our Enemies of Rome WEe therefore well weighing that the Seminaries must decay when the Garden shall bee wasted in all humility most heartely pray Your Majesty and this Honourable Court that all the Orders of Holy Church of Bishops Priests and Decons which from the Apostles times till these have withstood so many Practices may have yet hopes to flourish under Your gracious Protection And that by your assistance under our most Religious Soveraigne the ancient Catholique Faith and Discipline as also the devout and decent service of God in our Church Liturgy may bee defended from all Innovations and Novelties The meanes and liberties of the Churches as well Cathedrall and Collegeat as Parochiall to them hitherto of right belonging according to the pious Wills of their blessed Founders may bee continued and preserved Many thousand Families which on them depend secured from ruine And that our Nation whose Lawes already favour as much as any in the World the right of the First borne may retaine Ecclesiasticall promotions as the Patrimony of younger Children the prize of labour and study an incitement of learning and a reward of those that can intitle themselves thereto by honest desert And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. This Petition is subscribed generally by all the Doctors Masters and Batchelours of all Degrees and Faculties in the Vniversity of Oxford And by very many other persons of quality Baronets Knights Esquires Ministers and Gentlemen within the Counties of Oxford Berks Wilts South-hampton Dorset Kent Surrey Westmerland Cumberland and other Shires Devonshire Petition To the Right Honourable the Lords Spirituall and Temporall now assembled in the House of PARLIAMENT The humble Information and Petition of the Knights Esquires Gentlemen and others of ability within the Diocesse of Exeter WEe whose Names are underwritten have for these many yeares found the benefit and comfort of Episcopall Government under which wee have lived hitherto peacebly and happily with great freedome and frequency of the Preaching of the Gospell and incouragement of the conscionable and painefull Preachers thereof As wee blesse God for his favour to us in the behalfe So wee doe humbly and earnestly professe our desire that the same Government may bee still continued both to us and our posterity submitting all personall offences and redresse of abuses to your Honourable Wisdomes In witnesse whereof wee have hereunto subscribed Signed by Knights Esquires Gentlemen and other Inhabitants neere upon Eight thousand The Staffordshire Petition To the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS assembled in the High Court of PARLIAMENT The humble Petition of the Knights Gentlemen Ministers Freeholders and other Inhabitants within the County of STAFFORD hereunto subscribed Who Most humbly pray THat the present publique forme of Gods Worship and administration of the blessed Sacrament with other Rites agreeable to Gods holy Word and purest antiquity which hath beene formerly sundry times established by godly Acts of Parliament may now againe in these broken and troubled times bee to Gods glory and the Churches Peace re-established and confirmed That Episcopacy being the ancientest and Primitive Government of the Church renowned for successes victorious against Schismes and Heresies and especially of late yeares against that Hydra of Heresies the Roman Papacy glorious for ancient and late Martyrdomes happy before the corruption of Popery and since the Reformation in the Plantation and Preservation of Truth and Peace eminently serviceable to this Common-wealth most compliable with the Civill Government into the Fabrick and body of which it is riveted and incorporate most apt easie a● all times by the State to be reduced into Order may for the future as formerly by your Great Authority bee continued and maintained for the glory of God preservation of Order Peace and Vnity the Reformation and suppression of wickednesse and vice and the mature prevention of Schismes Factions and Seditions The which wee your humble Petitioners the more earnestly beseech your Honours to grant For that strong feare doe possesse our hearts that the sudden mutation of a Government so long setled so well knowne and approved cannot recompence with any proportionable utility the disturbances and disorders which it may worke by novelty being most confident in your Honours Wisdome and Iustice That all excessive exorbitances and incroachments which shall bee found issuing not from any poison in the nature of the Discipline but rather from the infirmity or corruption of the person unto which the very best Government is subject shall bee duely regulated and corrected And your Petitioners shall duly pray for your Honours happiest proceedings Subscribed by 3000. of the best quality of the County To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty And to the Right Honourable the LORDS and the Honourable the House of COMMONS assembled in PARLIAMENT The most humble Petition of divers Baronets Knights Iustices Gentry Ministers and Freeholders Inhabitants

better supply of able Ministers and the removing of all Innovation and wee doubt not but in your great Wisedomes you will regulate the rigour of Ecclesiasticall Courts to suit with the temper of our Lawes and the nature of Free-men Yet when wee consider that Bishops were instituted in the time of the Apostles That they were the great lights of the Church in all the first generall Counsels That so many of them sowed the seeds of Religion in their bloods and rescued Christianity from utter extirpation in the Primitive Heathen persecutions That to them wee owe the redemption of the purity of the Gospell wee now professe from Romish corruption That many of them for the propagation of the truth became such glorious Martyrs That divers of them lately and yet living with us have beene so great assertours of our Religion against its common enemy of Rome And that their Government hath beene so long approved so oft established by the Common and Statute-lawes of this Kingdome And as yet nothing in their Doctrine generally taught dissonant from the Word of God or the Articles ratified by Law In this case to call their Government a perpetuall Vassalage an intollerable Bondage And prima facie inaudita altera parte to pray the present removall of them or as in some of their Petitions to seeke the utter dissolution and ruine of their offices as Antichristian we cannot conceive to relish o● justice or charity nor can wee joyne with them But on the contrary when wee consider the tenour of such writings as in the name of Petitions are spread amongst the Common-people the tenents preached publiquely in Pulpits and the contents of many printed Pamphlets swarming amongst us all of them dangerously exciting a disobedience to the established forme of Government and their severall intimations of the desire of the power of the Keyes and that their Congregations may execute Ecclesiasticall censures within themselves wee cannot but expresse our just feares that their desire is to introduce an absolute Innovation of Presbyterall Government whereby wee who are now governed by the Canon and Civill Lawes dispensed by twenty-six Ordinaries easily responsall to Parliaments for any deviation from the rule of Law conceive wee should become exposed to the meere Arbitrary Government of a numerous Presbitery who together with their ruling Elders will arise to neere forty thousand Church Governours and with their adherents must needs beare so great a sway in the Common-wealth that if future inconvenience shall be found in that Government wee humbly offer to consideration how these shall bee reducible by Parliaments how consistent with a Monarchy and how dangerously conducible to an Anarchy which wee have just cause to pray against as fearing the consequences would prove the utter losse of Learning and Lawes which must necessarily produce an extermination of Nobility Gentry and Order if not of Religion With what vehemency of Spirit these things are prosecuted and how plausibly such popular infusions spread as incline to a parity wee held it our duty to represent to this Honourable assembly And humbly pray That some such present course be taken as in your Wisdomes shall bee thought fit to suppresse the future dispersing of such dangerous discontents amongst the Common-people Wee having great cause to feare that of all the distempers that at present threaten the well-fare of this State there is none more worthy the mature and grave consideration of this Honourable assembly then to stop the Torrent of such Spirits before they swell beyond the bounds of Government Then wee doubt not but his Majesty persevering in his gracious inclination to heare the complaints and relieve the grievances of his Subjects in frequent Parliaments it will so unite the Head and the Body so indissolubly cement the affections of his people to our Royall Soveraigne that without any other change of Government Hee can never want revenue nor wee justice Wee have presumed to annex a Coppy of a Petition or Libell dispersed and certaine positions preacht in this County which wee conceive imply matter of dangerous consequence to the peace both of Church and State All which wee humbly submit to your great Judgements praying they may bee read And shall ever pray Subscribed to this Petition Foure Noblemen Knight Baronets Knights and Esquires fourescore and odde Divines threescore and tenne Gentlemen three hundred and odde Free-holders and other Inhabitants above six thousand All of the same County To the High and Honourable Court of PARLIAMENT The humble Petition of the Vniversity of OXFORD Sheweth THat whereas the Vniversity hath beene informed of severall Petitions concerning the present Government of this Church and maintenance of the Clergy which have of late beene exhibited to this Honourable Assembly Wee could not but thinke our selves bound in duty to God and this whole Nation charity to our selves and Successours who have and are like to have more then ordinary interest in any resolution that shall bee taken concerning Church-affaires in all humility to desire the continuance of that forme of Government which is now established here and hath beene preserved in some of the Easterne and Westnerne Churches in a continued Succession of Bishops downe from the very Apostles to this present time the like whereof cannot bee affirmed of any other forme of Government in any Church Vpon which consideration and such other motives as have beene already represented to this Honourable Parliament from other Persons and places with whom Wee concurre in behalfe of Episcopacy Wee earnestly desire that you would protect that ancient and Apostolicall Order from ruine or diminution And become farther Suiters for the continuance of those pious Foundations of Cathedrall Churches with their Lands and Revenues As dedicate to the Service and Honour of God soone after the Plantation of Christianity in the English Nation As thought fit and usefull to bee preserved for that end when the Nurseries of Superstition were demolished and so continued in the last and best times since the blessed Reformation under King Edward 6. Queen Elizabeth and King James Princes renowned through the World for their piety and wisdome As approved and confirmed by the Lawes of this Land ancient and moderne As the principall outward motive and encouragement of all Students especially in Divinity and the fittest reward of some deepe and eminent Schollars As producing or nourishing in all ages many godly and learned Men who have most strongly asserted the truth of that Religion Wee professe against the many fierce oppositions of our adversaries of Rome As affording a competent portion in an ingenuous way to many younger Brothers of good Parentage who devote themselves to the Ministery of the Gospell As the onely meanes of subsistence to a multitude of Officers and other Ministers who with their Families depend upon them and are wholly maintained by them As the maine authours or upholders of diverse Schooles Hospitals High-wayes Bridges and other publique and pious Workes As speciall causes of much

pursuance of their pious intendments and in allowance of their Reasons doe also presse to your great Tribunal and begge of you that which is the honour of Kings to be Nutricij of the Church and her most ancient and successive Government Wee therefore humbly beg of you to leave us in that state the Apostles left the Church in That the three Ages of Martyrs were governed by That the thirteene Ages since them have alwayes gloried in by their Succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves members of the Catholike and Apostolike Church that our Lawes have established so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were baptized as certainely Apostolicall as the observation of the Lords Day as the distinction of Books Apocryphall from Canonicall as that such Bookes were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters as any thing which you will doe by upholding the Government of the Church by Bishops which we againe and againe begge of you to doe having pitty on our Consciences and not forcing of us to seeke Communion as yet we know not where So shall we be bound to pray with a multiplyed Devotion for the increase of publike and personall blessings to your Honourably assembly to your Noble Persons Wee also doe with all Humility begge leave to represent these our Considerations subjoyned which wee hope you will favourably expound to be a well-meant zeale and at least a confidence of duty and charity to those our Fathers from whom wee have received and daily hope to receive many issues of spirituall Benison 1 WEe consider that Christ either left his Church without a lasting Government or else Bishops and Presbyters under them are that Government the former wee feare to say lest wee might seeme to accuse the Wisdome of the Father of Improvidence in the not providing for his Family the Feeder and the Ruler in Scripture being all one in Office ●n expression in person So that if hee left no Rulers hee left no Feeders The latter wee are more confident of for that Christ did clearely institute a disparity in the Clergy which is the maine Stone of offence appeares in the Apostles and seventy two Disciples to whom according to the voyce of Christendome and traditive Interpretation of the Church Bishops and Presbyters respectively doe succeed and also many actually did succeed the Apostles in their Chaires being ordained Bishops by the Apostles themselves that did survive and also beyond all exception that Christ did institute a Government appeares in those Evangelicall words who then is that Faithfull and wise Steward whom his Lord shal make Ruler over his houshold c. which Rulers are Bishops and Priests under them or else the Church hath beene Apostate from her Lord shee having clearely for fifteene hundred yeares had no other Rulers then such 2. Wee consider that whether it can be a Church or no without Bishops is at least a question of great consideration and the Negative is maintained by Apostolicall and Primitive men and Martyrs and by the greatest part of Christendome and those few in respect of the whole that dissent being most certainely not infallible to bee sure with Episcopacy it may be a Church eatenus therefore it is the surest course to retaine it for feare we separate from the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth 3 No Ordination never was without a Bishop and if any Presbyter did impose hands unlesse in conjunction with a Bishop hee was accounted an Usurper and anathematized by publike and unquestioned authority and so without Bishops no Presbyter then no absolution no consecration of the Sacraments of the Lords Supper and for these wants no man can make a recompence or satisfaction 4 No Presbyter did ever impose hands on a Bishop which if so famous a resolve or publike voice of Christendome may have an estimate shewes their disparity and that a Bishop hath a Character which cannot be imprinted without at least an equall hand 5 VVithout Bishops no Confirmation of Children and yet confirmation called in Scripture Imposition of hands Saint Paul in his famous Catechisme accounts a Fundamentall point and the Church hath alwayes used it and it was appropriate to Bishops by the laudable custome of Christendome and by the example of the Apostles in the case of the Samaritane Christians whom Phillip the Evangelist had converted and is charged upon the Parents of Children that they bring their children to Bishops to be confirmed and it was never otherwise but just as in the case of Ordination videlicet by singularity and usurpation till of late that the Iesuits to enlarge their Philacteries have striven to make Bishops not necessary by communicating Confirmation to the Priests of their Order 6 To take away Bishops is against the Wisdome of the State of England ever since the Reformation and having beene attempted by clancular practises was checked by the Princes respectively and their Councell and confidently by the wisdome of preceeding Parliaments and this although the Bishops then were lesse learned and as much infamed 7 We are sure that Episcopall Government hath consisted with Monarchy ever since the English Monarchy was Christian we are to try whether any innovated Government can or will 8 Wee consider that if it could consist with Monarchy when it was byassed by the Popes prevalent incroachment much more since the Reformation when the King hath the raines in his owne hand and can give them Lawes and ascertaines them by their immediate dependance both for their Baronies and Election and personall Iurisdiction on the Crowne and by the Statute of Submission 9 Wee consider that Saint Hierome pretented as the maine Authenticke enemy against Episcopacy yet sayes That Bishops were constituted as an antidote and deletory to dis-improve the issues of Schisme and that by the Apostles who best knew the remedies And now that Schismes multiply there is more need of Bishops so that they cannot be taken away upon pretence their Regiment is not necessary for the taking them away makes them more necessary by the multiplication of Schismes 10 All Learning will be discountenanced if not extinguished upon the demolition of Episcopacy the Bishops being parties for the advancement of Learning and on the other side if the Government should be in the hands of Presbitery or lay Elders we know no reason sufficient to stifle our feares lest preferment be given to people unlearned and unfit to have the mannaging of Soules especially since a learned Clergy will be suspected by their Lay-Elders as too knowing to be ruled by their Dictates which will not have so much artifice and finenesse as to command by strength of reason which our feares are also increased by considering that by the multiplication of Lay-Elders or other Governours their personall interest being increased partiality must be more frequent and all this is besides their incompetency of judging the abilities of Schollers 11 The remove all