Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bishop_n	church_n	elder_n	2,599	5	9.6510	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57861	A true representation of Presbyterian government wherein a short and clear account is given of the principles of them that owne it, the common objections against it answered, and some other things opened that concern it in the present circumstances / by a friend to that interest.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1690 (1690)	Wing R2228; ESTC R28113	15,541	24

A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT Wherein a short and clear Account is given of the PRINCIPLES Of Them that owne IT THE COMMON OBJECTIONS AGAINST IT ANSWERED And some other Things opened that concern IT in the PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES By a Friend to that Interest EDINBURGH Printed at the Society of Stationers Printing house in Harts-Close over against the Trone Church for George Mosman Bookseller in the Parliament-Close Anno Dom 1690. A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT THat any of the Truths or Ordinances of God should need an Apology to be made for them should be for a Lamentation For it proceedeth either from the Ignorance or Perverseness of Men. The Principles and way of Presbyterians have undergone the common Fate of other of the parts of that Religion that Christ hath taught It is the Sect every where spoken against and there hath been no small stir about that way And this hath proceeded partly from the enmity against that curb of mens Lusts and Enormities that is in ungodly men And partly from want of knowledge of that way which even they may be under whose Studies and Thoughts are imployed about things of another nature and not about these matters though they be otherwise knowing and thinking Men Or from prejudice that their Interest may fill them with to the hiding of Truth in this from their eyes wherefore we think it our Duty to endeavour the vindication of this our Profession with as much brevity and clearness as we can attain by First giving a plain account of what we hold 2 dly Taking off the most material Objections and these that are most common or reproaches that are used against us for we have to do not only with men otherwise Sober and Judicious who differ from us But with many whose Temper Practices and Designs are not such as becometh the Gospel We desire as to approve our selves to our Blessed Lord and Master Jesus Christ so to satisfy the Minds of all Inquirers after Truth but especially to stand right in the Opinion of His Majesty our Gracious Soveraign of his Grace the Kings High Commissioner and of the Noble and Honourable Estates of Parliament who we hope as Nursing Fathers to the Church will own us in those ways that the Lord owneth us in Our Principles we lay down in a few Propositions F●rst We own Christ the Mediator as the only Head over and Lawgiver to his Church and we disown any visible governing Head over the Church however pretending to act in Subordination to him Because we know none that he hath given such Commission to 2 dly Christ as Head of the Church hath given forth Laws whereby the Affairs of his House should be managed and hath not left any Nomothetick Power in the Church to make Laws for her self her work being to declare and execute the Laws of Christ and the Laws of the Magistrate are not to appoint new ordinances or Officers in the Church though he ought to give his civil Sanction to what Christ hath appointed and may make Laws about these things that are External to the Church that is which are common to her with other Societies 3 dly Christ hath appointed Officers in his House and declared how they should be qualified and what should be their work As in the beginning of the Gospel he was pleased to appoint several extraordinary and temporary Officers that were immediately called and extraordinarily Gifted by himself as Apostles Prophets and Evangelists c. The Apostles by Divine direction did immediately choose some by themselves for itinerant work either from amongst the ordinary or extraordinary Officers of the Church to exercise hic nunc their extraordinary Power which Officers we commonly call Evangelists so we do not find that he appointed any ordinary and perpetual Officers except Elders called also Bishops and Deacons Phil 1 1. Of these Elders some were to Rule the Church and also to Teach her Heb 13 7. 17. Others only to Rule 1 Tim. 5. 17. Which also was the practice of the first Antiquity and it s desuerude complained of by Ambrose in the end of the fourth Century And there are few of the Fathers in the first three Centuries but they mention Sentores Ecclesiae that represented the People in the Government of the Church with the Ministers 4 ly How the Officers of Gods House should be qualified is at length set down 1 Tim. 3. 2. under the Name of Bishops which was the Name of all Church Rulers and Deacons and Tit. 1. 6. 5 ly Their work is fully set down both negatively that they should not be intangled with worldly Affairs 2 Tim. 2. where having mentioned Ordination of Ministers vers 2. he requireth them vers 3 and 4. as Souldiers to endure hardness and to be abstracted from worldly Business which is to be understood as much as their necessity doth permit Also positively it is told us in general that they are directed in this 1 Tim. 3. 14 15 and particular Directions are given about Preaching and that in all the parts of it 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. Censures 1 Cor. 5 4. 5. 2 Thess. 3. 14. Ordination 2 Tim 2. 2. II Tim. 5. 22. 6 ly In all these Ministers and Elders have no Lordly Authority over the People but must act as Christs Servants and theirs in order to their Salvation 1 Pet. 5. 3. 2 Cor. 4. 5. yet they have real and proper though Ministerial Authority under Christ. 7 ly It is not only of Divine Authority natural that there be a Government in the Church Anarchy and Confusion in any Society being contrary to the Dictates of natural reason but the Lord Jesus hath positively revealed his will in this He having expresly committed the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven to his Servants and that for binding and loosing retaining and remitting of Sins The Authoratative inflicting of Censures whereby the man is declared to be free from guilt and that his Sin is pardoned so far as Men can discern 8 ly What should be the Species of this Government is not left indifferent to Men whether the Magistrate or the Church to chuse but is determined by Christ and revealed in the New Testament In that he hath appointed what Officers should be in his House how they should be Chosen and Authorized viz. by Election and Ordination what should be their Qualifications and Work How they should manage their work and rule the Church in common That the Apostles committed the Ordination of Ministers to the Presbytery 1 Tim 4. 14. and the Censures of the Church to a Community 1 Cor 5 2 Cor. 2. And not to one person even in their own time is an unanswerable argument for this their example being declarative of the mind of God where no peculiar reason appeareth for their Action 9 ly This Government the Lord hath not committed to Magistrates who have no power to Ordain nor deprive Ministers or Elders nor to Excommunicate or to relax

from that Sentence Nor to administer or manage any part of that Work that is peculiar to the Church as it is a Religious Society nor to appoint how the Church should be governed But he hath committed it to the Church Guides Ministers and Ruling Elders for to them are all the Directions about it given in the Word not to the Magistrates they are to give an account of it Heb. 13 17. They did manage it for diverse hundreds of years when there was no Magistrate that did own or countenance Christianity And there is no hint in Scripture nor Principle of reason that can evince that this Power should devolve into the hands of the Magistrate when he should become Christian neither are any Directions given to the Magistrate how he should administer any of the Ordinances of Christ. 10 ly Yet we own the Civil Magistrate as Nursing Father of the Church and Custos utriusque tabulae legis Upon which account he is not only to provide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Church and to procure her Peace and Unity by all good means as repressing of Heresie Schism and other Disorders wherein he is to use a judgement of Discretion and not blindly to execute the Sentence of the Church but also may require all the Officers and Members of the Church to do what is their Duty And that he may when the Case requireth convocat Synods and Indict times of Fasting and Thanskgiving Though for these we assert an intrinsick Power in the Church to which that of the Magistrate is not privative but cumulative For we maintain a twofold Kingdom of Christ one as God over all men in which the Magistrate is his Vicegerent another as Mediator over the Church as such in which he hath Deputed no Magistratical but only Ministerial Power We hold also that the Persons and Actions of Church-men are subject to the Civil Magistrate and that they may be punish'd when they transgress the Laws 11 ly This Ministerial governing Power in the Church the Lord hath not committed to all the Members nor to all the Males thereof But hath made a manifest distinction between Rulers and Ruled in the Scriptures mentioned already 12 ly The Lord hath equally intrusted all his Servants the Ministers not only with the power of dispensing the Word and Sacraments but also with the power of Governing the Church Which by his appointment and acoording to the practice of the first and best Ages of the Churches ought to be and was done in common by Ministers acting in Parity and not by a single Prelate set over the rest This is accknowledged by most and the most eminent of our Prelatick Brethren And must be so by all of them who do not plead for a Divine Right of Episcopacy Besides that neither Names Directions or Reproofs given to Church Guides in Scripture do import any such imparity of Power nor is their any footstep of the exercise of it in Scripture to infer this disparity of Power from that of the Apostles is most inconsequential They being Universal Extraordinary Unfixed and temporary Officers whom the Lord immediatly called and abrogated their Office with their Death in that he neither called others to succeed in that Power nor gave any hint that it should be done by the Church It is as if one should say the Church was once governed Monarchically by a visible Head viz. While Christ was on Earth Ergo It should be so still Which no Protestant will aver The Argument in Timothy and Titus is of the same Kidney they being extraordinary and unfixed Officers and so no precedent for after times Neither can any Argument be drawn from the Angels of the Churches words not being often used properly in that mystical Book and we know that Theologia Symbolica non est Argumentativa Besides that the Angel of Thyatyra was certainly a community being spoken to in the plural Number Revel 2. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 There being no disparity of power amongst Ministers by Christs grant of power to them No man can make this disparity by setting One over the Rest Neither can they devolve their power on One of themselves For Christ hath given no such warrant to Men to dispose of His Ordinance as they see fit And power being delegated to them by him they cannot so commit it to another to exercise it for them as to deprive themselves of it Also it being not a License only but a Trust of which they must give an account they must perform the work by themselves as they will be answerable But we must contract not being now disputing but asserting what we shall be ready to defend as occasion shall be offered 14 We assert Presbyterial Government to be so of Divine Right as We can make no composition with men about it though none shall be more condescending to them that are otherwise minded in what is consistant with Truth and necessary Duty then we Yet it is not alike so in all the parts of it For some parts of it are of Christs institution as the officers of the Church the Laws and Censures of it And others of the dictates of natural Reason which is also a Beam of Divine Light as that there be a Government and meeting for managing of it that one preside in them that lesser and greater parts of the Church had their meetings as Congregational Classical Provincial and National Assemblies for Government that there be a subordination and appeals amongst these To require positive assertions of Scripture warranting every one of these though there want not Scripture examples and other hints to countenance severals of them is as unreasonable as if we should be called to bring a text to prove that we should come in to the publick assemblies cloathed and not naked In an usual and not in an antiquat Garb 15 Whether the Moderator or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of rulei●g Church meetings should continue for one or more Diets or for how long a time is not determined by any institution of Christ not by any general dictate of natural Light Yet we judge a constant Moderator highly inconvenient and by all means to be shuned For it he be imposed on the meeting it is an encroachment on their intrinsick power of governing themselves in such things as are peculiar to them And though chosen by themselves fatal and constant examples together with the inclinanations of men to usurpation do shew it to have so violent tendency to Lordly Prelacy as rately doeth it fail or the bad effects nor can be expected not to Issue in it We maintain that no Church Judicature ought to cognosce of Affairs of State nor of Mens civil Rights or Interests except their advice should be sought by the Magistrat concerning Sin or Duty in any such matter As if the thing be manifestly Scandalous and evidently dangerous to the interest of Religion and the Souls of Men. Neither do they inflict any punishment save