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
B05065	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 R2229A; ESTC R182954	15,429	16

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 CIRCVMSTANCES By a Friend to that Interest Licensed April the 18. 1690. Edinburgh Re-printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson 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 2dly 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 satisfie 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 King 's High Commissioner and of the Noble and Honourable Estates of Parliament who we hope as Nursing Fathers to the Church will owne us in those ways that the Lord owneth us in Our Principles we lay down in a few Propositions First We owne Christ the Mediator as the only Head over and Lawgiver to his Church and we disown and 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 2dly Christ as Head of the Church hath given forth Laws whereby the Affairs of his House should be mannaged and hath not left any Nomothetick Power in the Church to make Laws for her self her work being to declare and execute that Laws of Christ and the Laws of the Magistrat 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 3dly 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 immediatly called and extraordinarily Gifted by himself as Apostles Prophets and Evangelists c. The Apostles by Divine derection did immediatly 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 also to Teach her Heb. 13.7 17. Others only to Rule 1 Tim. 5.17 which also we the practice of the first Antiquity and its desuetude 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 Seniores Ecclesiae that represented the People in the Government of the Church with the Ministers 4ly How the Officers of God's 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 Tit. 1.6 5ly 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 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 Thes 3.14 Ordination 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 5.22 6ly In all these Ministers and Elders have no Lordly Authority over the People but must acts as Christ's 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 7ly 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 Authorotative 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 8ly What should be the Species of this Government is not left indifferent to Men whether the Magistrat 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 Presbytry 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 9ly This Government the Lord hath not committed to Magistrats who have no power to Ordain or Deprive Ministers or Elders nor to Excommunicate or to relax from that Sentence Nor to Administer or mannage any part of that Work that is peculiar to the Church as it is a Religious Society nor to appoint how the Church should