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	deacon_n	presbyter_n	3,323	5	10.5055	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19460	A iust and temperate defence of the fiue books of ecclesiastical policie: written by M. Richard Hooker against an vncharitable letter of certain English Protestants (as they tearme themselues) crauing resolution, in some matters of doctrine, which seeme to ouerthrow the foundation of religion, and the Church amongst vs. Written by William Covel Doctor in Diuinitie, and published by authority. The contents whereof are in the page following.	Covell, William, d. 1614?	1603 (1603)	STC 5881; ESTC S120909	118,392	162

Ecclesiasticall work is for the maner of performāce ordered by diuers ecclesiastical lawes prouiding that as the sacrament it self is a gift of no mean worth so the ministerie thereof might in all circumstances appeare to bee a function of no small regarde The ministerie of the things diuine is a function which as God did himselfe institute so neither may men vndertake the same but by authority and power giuen them in lawfull manner That God which is no way deficient or wanting vnto man in necessaries and hath therfore giuen vs the light of his heauenly truth because without that inestimable benefit we must needes haue wandred in darknesse to our endles perdition and who hath in the like aboundance of mercies ordeined certaine to attend vpon the due execution of requisite parts and offices therein prescribed for the good of the whole world which men therunto assigned doe hold their authority from him whether they be such as himselfe immediately or else the Church in his name inuesteth it being neither possible for all nor for euery man without distinction conuenient to take vpon him a charge of so great importance and therfore very fitly the Church of England affirmeth that it is not lawfull for any one to take to himselfe the office of preaching publikely or administring the Sacraments in the Church except he be first lawfully called to doe th●se things For God who hath reserued euen from the first beginning of the world vntill the end therof a Church vnto himselfe vpon earth against which the gates of hell shall not preuaile hath likewise appointed a perpetuall ministery for the seruice therein which though for outward calling hath not bin euer the same yet continually it was limited in those bounds as a thing most vnmeet and vnlawfull for any man to vndertake that was not called For as it is Gods infinite mercie when he could either saue vs without the ministry of any or by the ministry of Angels yet then to honor man with this dignity to make him a coadiutor dispenser and cohelper in so great a worke so it is his wisdome to appoint both for the auoiding of confusion and vnfitnesse such persons as are truly allotted to so honorable an office which neither before vnder or after the law was euer lawfull without any calling to vndertake The enemies to this religious order of the Church haue bin certaine louers of confusion which vnder pretence of the calling of the spirit haue ouerboldly intruded themselues into those holy functions for which lawfully they had neuer warrant Such were the Enthusiasts Anabaptists Schwenkfeldians who being enemies to all order vnder pretence of a calling from the Holy-ghost which others wanted haue made a passage contrary to that restraint of the Apostle Let no man take vpon him that honor to himselfe but he that is called of God without expectation of lawfull warrant to those duties that in the Church are greatest for in the time before the law it was not permitted to take the office of priesthood vnlesse he either were or had the prerogatiue of the eldest brother This was for the sinne of Ruben deriued to the tribe of Louie first for their zeale in that great idolatry and was after confirmed vnto him in the sedition of Corah and yet not to all of that family either to serue in that tabernacle or to teach throughout all Israel Neither were all ages equally fit vnto this calling it being neither lawfull before fiue and twenty nor after fifty to be admitted to it As also those that were admitted had a speciall consecration for a personall difference from the rest of that family to let them vnderstand that although they and only they of that tribe were to be imployed in those functions yet it was not lawfull to vndertake it without a calling this afterward whē better notes of eminencie gaue that allowance which before birth did was with greater reuerence to be expected and to be obserued with a greater care by those whom the Church had inuested with authority to call vnto that charge To these persons because God imparted power ouer his mysticall bodie which is the society of soules and ouer that naturall which is himselfe for the knitting of both in one a worke which antiquity doth call the making of Christs body the same power is in such not amisse both tearmed a kind of marke or Character and acknowledged to be indeleble For ministeriall power is a marke of separation because it seuereth them that haue it from other men and maketh them a speciall order consecrated vnto the seruice of the most high in things wherewith others may not meddle Their difference therfore from other men is in that they are a distinct order and I call it indeleble because they which haue once receiued this power as Maister Hooker saith may not thinke to put it off and on like a cloake as the weather serueth to take it reiect and resume it as oft as themselues liste of which prophane and impious contempt these latter times haue yeelded as of all other kinds of iniquity and apostasie strange examples But let them know which put their hands to this plough that once consecrated vnto God they are made his peculiar inheritance for euer Suspensions may stoppe and degradations vtterly cutte off the vse or exercise of power giuen but voluntarily it is not in the power of man to separate and pull asunder what God by his authority coupleth Neither neede there a reordinatiō for such as were consecrated by the Church in corrupter times for out of men indued with gifts of the spirit the Church chose her ministers vnto whom was giuen ecclesiasticall power by ordination which they could neither assume or reiect at their owne pleasure Of these without doubt the Apostolick Churches did acknowledge but three degrees at the first Apostles in stead whereof are now Bishops Presbyters and Deacons for there is an error as Maister Hooker saith which beguileth many who much entangle both themselues and others by not distinguishing seruices offices and orders Ecclesiasticall the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the laity whereas none haue or can haue the third namely order but the clergie Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature only of their labour and paines be considered may in that respect seeme clergie men euen as the fathers for that cause tearme them vsually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained vp which was to enter into orders when yeeres and experience should make them able notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the laity longer then during that work of seruice which at any time they might giue ouer beeing thereunto but admitted not tyed by irreuocable ordination we finde them alwaies exactly seuered from that body whereof those three before rehearsed orders alone are naturall parts