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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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41549	The reformed bishop, or, XIX articles tendered by Philarchaiesa, well-wisher of the present government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled by law, in order to the further establishment thereof.	Gordon, James, Pastor of Banchory-Devenick.	1679 (1679)	Wing G1279; ESTC R10195	112,676	318

of the Councel of Ancyra and the 13th of the Councel of Neo-Caesarea as also the 10th of the Councel of Antioch In all which the Privilege that is accounted most essential to the Episcopal Function viz. The Power to Ordain Presbyters and Deacons which Ierom supposed to be the only formal Difference betwixt Bishops and Presbyters is denied to the Chor-Episcopi And though it may be objected That the tenth Canon of the Councel of Antioch which is one of the Provincials that was adopted by the sixth General Councel insinuates that the Chor-Episcopi were consecrated as Bishops by the Imposition of the Bishop's hands yet that seems either to be a sophisticated Canon or that it was a Ceremony of particular Designation like to that of the thirteenth of the Acts For it is most certain S. Paul was an Apostle long before that Imposition of Hands Which Gloss upon the Canon appears to me to be most probable because this Provincial was celebrated a little after that Famous Councel of Nice and it is most improbable that they would have contradicted so expressly that great Oecumenical in two Particulars viz. The Ordination of a Bishop by one individual of that Order and the making two Bishops in one Diocess whereas that first General Councel ordains three Bishops at least to concur in the Ordination of a Bishop and appoints but one Bishop in every Diocess The Ignorance of which Canon was a matter of Regret to the great Augustine qui Valerio in Episcopatu Hipponensi non successit sed accessit On which account although he design'd Eradius his own Successor yet he would not have him ordain'd in his own time erit inquit Presbyter ut est quando Deus voluerit futurus Episcopus And though it may be presumed that P. Damasus was not ignorant of that Canon of Antioch if there was truly any such he living so nigh to the time of that Councel yet in his Constitution whereby he endeavours to abolish the Chor-Episcopi which we find in Decr. Gratian. p. 1. Dist. 68. c. Chor-Episc he calls them meer and single Presbyters and that through Pride only they usurped the Episcopal Office and that by virtue of their Ordination they could not exercise any Episcopal Privilege both the Councel of Neo-Caesarea and Damasus ground upon this Foundation That Presbyters succeed only to the 70 Disciples and not to the Apostles But suppose the Foundation on which they build to be a tottering Basis yet we may clearly read so much upon the Frontispiece of that Superstructure That they judged the Chor-Episcopi to be nothing else but Presbyters But as to the Succession the Learned Spalatensis a great Asserter of the Episcopal Privileges judgeth aright that both Bishops and Presbyters are the Apostles Successors in potestate ordinaria but with this difference that the former succeed in plenitudinem potestatis the latter in partem sollicitudinis which in the case of the Chor-Episcopi was a little amplified that Restraint which the Ecclesiastical Law hath laid upon the intrinsecal Power of a Presbyter being taken off For an Ecclesiastick may be impowered jure Sacerdotii to do many things in actu primo even when the exercitium actûs is sitly bound up by the Canons of the Church in order to the eviting of Schism Scandal and Confusion in the House of God which ought to be Domus Ordinata And if that accurate Antiquary Beveregius had well considered this he would not I suppose have so bitingly maintained That the Chor-Episcopi could be nothing else but Bishops Article XIII Mat. 20. 26 27 28. 1 Tim. 5. 1 2. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. Philem. 8. 9. HAVING but just now mentioned the Honour of the Clergy I would next advise all the Governours of the Church to demean themselves courteously and affably to all their Christian Gentileness and Condescendence being the fittest Machin to scrue out internal Respect from all Ranks of People For nothing commends Church-men so much as a Pious Modesty all Degrees of Persons but especially theirs being like Coins or Medals to which howsoever Virtue give the Stamp and Impression Humility must give the Weight Let not therefore any of them in their Travels towards the Northern Pole use insolent Boastings towards any Person of Honour especially in their own Habitations which ought to be Asyla to all And let them not improve that strange Logick any more as to inferr That some Gentlemen are bigot Fanaticks because they earnestly entreated them to preach on the 29th of May seeing they were upon the Place and the Church was vacant though they were not pleased to do it Or to conclude that they called some other Bishops Cheats Knaves because they wished that all of them were as good and just as their own Ordinary For without all Peradventure one haughty expression of a proud Priest hath a greater Tendency in it to proselyte a far greater number to Fanaticism than twenty uttered by the humblest of them all can bring over to Conformity And let all honest Ministers of the Gospel have a large share of those Acts of Humanity none of which deserve that Title who afford not a due Respect to their Superiours either in Church or State he being most unworthy to command who hath not first learned to obey nothing being more easie than a little Civility And yet an obliging Deportment in reference to the Clergy is a matter of great Importance for the good of the Order For by cherishing all those as Sons and Brethren who are well principled and make Conscience of their Office they insinuate themselves into the Hearts of those who next to the favour of God and of their Prince are indeed the best Support of their Government for as the Excellent Historian hath said Concordiâ res parvae crescunt Discordiâ maximae dilabuntur O! how lovingly as there had been no disparity at all did St. Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Cyprian the three Asian Gregories Athanasius Basil Augustin and many other Lights of the Primitive Church converse with their respective Colleges of Presbyters Neither will I ever forget that excellent Attestation of the Pious and Eloquent Bishop Hall deservedly termed the English Seneca who appealed to his own Clergy If his Deportment amongst them were not such as if he had been no more but a Presbyter with them or they all Bishops with him Away then with that invidious expression in reference to Presbyters The Inferiour Clergy though it is one of my Eusticks That all the Governours of our Church were superiour to all their Presbyters in that which is usually termed Clergy But whether that Fantastick Phrase savour more of Pride or Ignorance it can hardly be determined Sure I am in the Primitive Church only Deacons and Sub-Deacons with the rest of the Orders inferiour to them were so accounted As for Presbyters they were called Clerici Superioris loci And though some Popish Schoolmen have multiplyed the Sacred Orders into the number of Nine yet the

sealed with his most precious bloud were well informed that this way of Election was the Apostolick Method who in the first Vacancy of that Sacred Colledge of Apostles did fill it in this manner as we read in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and that it was the most Ordinary Custom of the Primitive Church to do so and of our own also not many years ago I am fully perswaded that our Gracious Sovereign whom God bless with a long and prosperous Reign over us who hath also manifested such transcendent Goodness towards this Church would be pleased graciously to Condescend to the humble Address of his obedient Subjects and Servants whereby the mouths of the Adversaries of our Church may be stopped and these Reproaches which are cast upon the Office wiped off as That Bishops are only the Creatures of Courtiers or of some Leading Church-men introduced by Motives best known to themselves and that they are yet but Presbyters as having no Call from the Church but only invested with a little more Secular Power than they formerly enjoyed and that the said Office amongst us is nothing but a Politick Design contrived rather to serve Secular ends than the Evangelical and Ecclesiastical Interests And in fine That the Prayers of the Chapter in their Elections are but a Mocking of God in seeking Grace to direct them in the Choice of a fit Person for the vacant Place whilst being predetermined by a Conge-d'elire from Court they make indeed no Election at all Vid. Concil Arelatens 2. Can. 35. Concil Avernens Can. 2. Concil Aurelianens 5. Can. 3. Concil Toletan 4. Can. 18. Synod Antiochen Can. 23. Concil Aurelianens 2. Can. 7. Concil Aurelianens 3. Can. 2. Concil Avernens Can. 2. Concil Aurelianens 5. Can. 3 4. Concil Toletan 4. Can. 18. Concil Parisiens Can. 6. Nullus Civibus invitis Ordinetur Episcopus nisl quem Populi Clericorum Electio plenissimâ quaes●êrit voluntate c. Et Concil Cabilonens Can. 10. Si quis Episcopus de quacunque Civitate fuerit defunctus non ab alio nisi à Comprovincialibus Clero civibus suis alterius habeatur Electio sin autem hujus Ordinatio irrita habeatur Vid. Ambros. Lib. 2. Offic. cap. 24. Bonis artibus sincero proposito nitendum ad Honorem arbitror maximè Ecclesiasticum ut neque resupina arrogantia vel remissa negligentia sit neque turpis affectatio indecora ambitio ad omnia abundat animi directa simplicitas satisque seipsa commendat Greg. 1. Lib. 9. ex Registro Epist. 50. ad Ethericum Episcopum Galliae ita fatur Nihil in dandis Ecclesiasticis Ordinibus auri saeva fames inveniat nil blandimenta surripiant nil gratia conserat Honoris proemium vitae sit provectus sapientiae incrementum madestia morum ut obtinente hujusmodi observantiâ indignus qui proemiis quaerit ascendere judicetur dignus cui bonum testimonium actio perhibet honoretur Vid. ejusdem Greg. Hom. 4 13 14. in Evang. in qua postrema scitè describit Mercenarium Vid. etiam Hieronymi Comment in Tit. ad ea verba Constituas per civitates Presbyteros A Brief Historical Account of the Form of Electing Bishops in the Primitive Church THat the Method of Election expressed in the Article was observed in Ecclesia primo-primitiva as Gratian somewhere speaks That is in the First Three Centuries may appear from the subsequent Historical Instances Clemens Rom. the First of the Christian Fathers next the Apostles in his excellent Epistle to the Corinthians gives a full Account of that Method of Election which was practised in the Infancy of the Christian Church and is absolutely consonant to that we wished for in the last Article But for brevity's sake we remit the ingenuous Reader to the 101 pag. of that Epistle Yet for all our haste I must make a little stop and Congratulate with all Lovers of Antiquity the Restitution of the only genuine Treatise of that Apostolick man unto the present Church this notable Epistle so full of Primitive Simplicity Candour and Zeal having like the River Alphaeus run under ground for so many Centuries of years But in this last Age that Fountain Arethusa hath appeared to the Publick view of the World The next Instance is in the 39th Chapter of Tertullian his Apologetick where he speaks to this purpose Praesident probati quique Seniores honorem istum non Pretio sed Testimonio adepti c. The next in the Series of time is the Famous Origen in Hom. 6. in Levit. who there speaks to the same purpose Yet it cannot be denied but that Sixtus Senensis Praesat in Bibliothec. averrs the said Commentary to be falsly ascribed to Origen as also that on Iob and he pretends solid Reasons for his Assertion S. Cyprian is so copious in this matter and his mind so well known therein unto all that have read his Works that we need not consume any Paper in citing that zealous Father I shall therefore remit the Reader to his 68th Epistle throughout and the 52d wherein he tells us That his fidus Achates Cornelius Bishop of Rome was chosen Clericorum pene omnium testimonio This amicable Couple may put us in mind of those friendly Pairs Celebrated by the Antients viz. Damon and Pythias Pylades and Orestes Achilles and Patroclus if all our Bishops were so affectionate no Rebeckah could perswade them to steal the Birthright by supplanting an elder Brother And that the Patriarch of Alexandria who was next to Rome till Constantinople quoniam erat nova Roma shuffled him by was chosen by the Presbyters there and that from among themselves even from the dayes of S. Mark is evident from Eusebius Hierem Theodoret and Eutychius To this Purpose Athanasius in his Second Apology introduceth P. Iulius the first Complaining of the irregular Promotion of Gregorie the Cappadocian by the Arrians unto the See of Alexandria Si enim pos● Synodum in Culpa deprel●ensus fuisset Athanasius non tamen oportuit Crea●ienem no●● Episcopi ita illegaliter praeter Canonem Ecclesiasticum fieri sed in ipsa Ecclesia ex ipso sacerdotali Ordine atque ex ipso Clero ejus Provinciae Episcopos constitui nequaquam ex illis qui nunc Apostolorum Canones violant To the same Purpose also Gregorie Nazianz in Oratione Quando assumptus est in consort Pat. Nam etsi Paternis laboribus succedere dulce est ac noto ac familiari gregi praeesse jucundius est quàm externo alieno addam etiam Deo carius nisi me fallit mentem eripit consuetudo non tamen conducibilius est nec tutius quàm ut volentibus praesint volentes quandoquidem neminem vi duci vult Lex nostra nec coactè sed sponte gubernari Ambrose Com. in Epist. ad Ephes. cap. 4. if it be his sayeth Antiqua consuetudo fuit ut antiquissimo Presbytero antiquissimus