Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	authority_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	4,112	5	10.2023	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34152	A compendious discourse, proving episcopacy to be of apostolicall, and conseqvently of divine, institution by a cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenaeus, a glorious martyr, and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France, upon the yeere of our Lord, 184 : the said testimony being so declared, pressed, and vindicated from all exceptions : that thereby an intelligent and conscionable reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe / by Peloni Almoni, Cosmopolites.	Almoni, Peloni, Cosmopolites.	1641 (1641)	Wing C5607; ESTC R1019	8,451	16

Shall then so holy a person be rejected as a lyer writing otherwise then he saw or heard This were a desperate evasion and contemptible yet followed by the adversaries of Episcopacy charging the Fathers as partiall in their owne cause But were they not the principall writers yet not the onely for Tertullian and Hierome were Presbyters only and not Bishops whose judgement and testimony I will not decline in this cause Thus our English Divines are rejected as being Bishops or affecting Episcopacy and so their owne Judges Say what you please yet I will conclude this passage with the publique protestation of that learned and holy man D. Iohn White in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse March 24. 1615. I protest before God and man it amazeth me to see such as can read either SCRIPTVRE or Antiquity to carpe at it Episcopacy when the Christian world for 1400. yeeres after Christ never saw any other government c. A fourth exception is that Polycarp was no Lord Bishop he had no civill dignity no temporall power c. and therefore very different from the Bishops of our Church Truely said but to little or no purpose The Christian Church and temporall State were then divided and the first was persecuted by the second till glorious Constantine obtained the Imperiall diadem upon the yeere 316. Afterwards by favour of the Emperour and other Princes civill dignity and temporall power were annexed to Episcopall places the Church and State being now united together I say therefore FIRST that Bishops for three centuries had no such dignity and power they were Bishops without it then and may be Bishops without it now SECONDLY that as the State for good reasons gave it so for good reasons such as may be not such as are may take it away but Episcopacy it selfe wch God gave no man may take away Salomon might exclude Abiathar from his Priesthood but the Priesthood he could not dissolve I speake not now of absolute power but lawfull power in the State for id possumus quod jure possumus no more THIRDLY that temporall power annexed to Episcopall function may not onely adorne it but strengthen it for the benefit of Church and Common wealth FOVRTHLY that Bishops are capeable of this dignity and power as Zanchius observeth well Epist. tom 1. ad Ioh. Stuckium saying that since in the old Testament one man the High priest exercised both powers spirituall and temporall Non ergo per se pugnant these two therefore to be a Bishop and a civill Potentate doe not of themselves the one oppugne the other but may both concurre in one person and then addeth that in writing the Confession of his Faith upon occasion whereof this question did arise he was to have a regard of those Reformed Churches wherein many as Bishops in England have a temporall power conjoyned with their spirituall office FIFTLY and lastly I demand of the adversaries of Episcopacy If Bishops shall be excluded from civill dignity temporal power c. will you rest so content shall our Bishops yet retaine their spirituall office of superiority over Presbyters with such authority in the Church as Christian Bishops did obtaine and exercise therein from and in the Apostolicall times and in the succeeding ages of the primitive Church No but you would cast them wholly out of the Church or leave them an empty title without a reall office which in the perpetuall discourse of all ages they have enjoyed in the universall Church To conclude if malice in some did not envie their honour and avarice in others their estates this exception were easily answered but howsoever it be Bishops they are lawfully with both and Bishops they may be truely without either A fift exception is that Polycarp as also Ignatius and other Bishops such as they were might perhaps have a priority of place before Presbyters but not a superiority of power above them A weake pretense against the knowne testimony and certaine experience of all ages for proofe whereof I remit you unto S. Hierome the supposed adversary of Bishops who in the very place so often produced against Episcopacy viz in Tit. 1. 5. saith that the Bishop was suprapositus placed above the Presbyters of his Church This is more then he said Epist. 85. that he was praepositus which perhaps you will render in English placed before them though in truth it be no lesse And to make all cleare in this point he saith yet further Contra Luciferianos cap. 4. The safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of the Bishop Unlesse an eminent and peerelesse power be given to him by all men there will be as many schismes as Priests in the Church Whereupon it is that in his instructions to Nepotianus hee saith very well What Aaron and his sonnes once were that we must know Bishops and Presbyters now are viz. in distinction office and degree and whence it is that as in S. Ignatius first so in other Authours afterward through all ages of the Christian Church Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are three distinct kinds in office and degree the first above the second and the second above the third and not weekely monthly yeerely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons but perpetually during the time of their lives The SIXT and last exception is yet more important for you will say as some have said that they who in the third chapter are called Bishops by Irenaeus are in the second chapter called Presbyters and so Polycarp though called here a Bishop is but a Presbyter since Presbyters also are so called Act. 20. 28. Phil. 1. 1. c. I answer It is true these Bishops here are called Presbyters before but how with an evident distinction from common Presbyters for when Irenaeus from Peter and Paul reckoneth a succession of 12. Bishops in the Church of Rome I demand had these Bishops no certaine distinction from other Presbyters in that Church I shewed before that their personall and lineall succession is observed by Irenaeus and others why because they had a reall difference from all the Presbyters therein This point is cleared by many evidences amongst which for brevity sake I produce the * Epistle of the Presbyters and Deacons of the Romane Church written to S. Cyprian upon the yeere 252. wherein they say that FABIAN their late Bishop the 19. in that place was lately put to death and that for the difficulty of the times another Bishop was not yet constituted who might moderate the affaires of the Church and by his authority and counsell might take care of such as were fallen in the time of persecution I argue then As Fabian lately was and his successour shortly must be in a distinct place of government above the Presbyters of Rome so was Eleutharius and so were his predecessours before a BISHOP in higher place of greater power above other Presbyters in the Romane Church For conclusion therefore of this point I pray you in all candor and ingenuity

to consider with me that though Presbyters in the beginning when as yet they had no Bishop over them were called and might be truely called Bishops that is to say overseers for they did then under the Apostles oversec the Church for a little time yet when the care of the whole Church came peculiarly to the Bishop as Hierome saith in Tit. 1. 5. this name was peculiarly attributed unto him and not communicated unto them witnesse the same S. Hierom et 85. where by particular instance he maketh the election of Bishops in the Church of Alexandria and saith that from Marke the Evangelist unto Heraclas and Dionysius the Presbyters electing one of their company and placing him in a higher degree note that by the way called him their BISHOP So that here the name of a Bishop by good authority and for good reason once common to all the Presbyters is now proper unto that Presbyter who was placed in an higher degree above the rest which Calvin also hath well observed Inst. l. 4. c. 4. sect. 1. 2. saying that in the old Church the title of Bishop was specially given to one Presbyter chosen out of the number of many To conclude then you shall finde sometimes in Antiquity that a Bishop is called a Presbyter but can you finde that anywhere a Presbyter is called a Bishop I am no stranger in the Councels Fathers and Histories in which course of studies being now 62. yeeres old I have spent a moiety of my age yet I can remember no such thing and were a Presbyter so called it were rather by force of the word which importeth overseeing then by propriety of speech since in Ecclesiasticall use the name of Bishop is appropriated to him who hath a generall overfight for the Clergy and Laity in his owne Diocesse or precinct Finally then as the High priest in the law is sometimes styled simply by the name of the Priest but yet was above other Priests in the old Testament so a Bishop is sometimes stiled by the name of a Presbyter but yet is above other Presbyters in the new A Conclusion Thus at the length having cleared the testimony of Irenaeus touching the Episcopacy of Polycarp committed unto him by the holy Apostles and particularly by S. John from all exceptions as I conceive which some adversaries of Episcopacy have taken and some may take against it I thus conclude my whole discourse and bring it to the present purpose viz. A Bishop in the Church of England doth not unjustly usurpe an office therein by humane institution but doth justly possesse it by * divine right notwithstanding all malicious scoffes and unlearned cavils against so ancient so venerable so necessary an Office in the Church of God Now if any man shall except against this discourse as prejudiciall to some Reformed Churches I answer that my care hath beene to justifie ours but my desire was not to impugne theirs and that I am as tenderly affected to retaine communion with the ancient and Universall Church as with any later and particular Church though in the truth and for the truth I love and embrace all Reformed Churches for which I have a more copious defence which may ensue hereafter this discourse being onely the prodromus or forerunner of a more ample Treatise which I have composed to maintaine Episcopacy under which I live in peace and without which I cannot live with comfort FINIS Lib. 3. cap. 3. * Functius in Chronolog * Anno D. 540. * Cyprian ep. 31. e. lit. 1. Pam●lii * The exercise and execution of his office in this or that place a Bishop hath by the favour of the Prince