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
A51393	A modest advertisement concerning the present controversie about church-government wherein the maine grounds of that booke, intituled The unlawfulnesse and danger of limited prelacie, are calmly examined.	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1641 (1641)	Wing M2793; ESTC R23329	10,150	23

all from one and whereof many as much detest the Bishop of Rome as any Protestant in England Among all these I say there are some Elders which being separated to holy things by the laying on of hands are ruled and these are called Priests or Presbyters and some which during their life doe rule and these are called Bishops And no reason can be given why all Churches should agree in this unlesse they received it together with their Christianity So that Episcopacy is supported by these three Props Time Place Persons All Histories confirm it the very Maps of the world beare witnesse to it and the Scriptures themselves are not delivered to us with a more universall unquestioned Tradition than the Order of Bishops is As for the Presbyteriall Discipline we can name the Time the Place and the Person that began it The Time for ought we can finde was within this last Age the Place Geneva the Person Iohn Calvin of whom I will onely say thus much That he was a wise man and knowing what was fit and necessary for that Citie stood not upon Names so he had the things But for my owne part I should be sorry to see any Bishop in this Land have such authority over other Ministers as he had at Geneva or Iohn Knox in Scotland And therefore for any man or Church to say that Episcopacy is A Plant that God had not planted but that it is Antichristian is to condemne all Christians as Antichristian and to say that Christ has not been rightly worshipped upon the earth till this last age which whether it be a sober and charitable opinion I submit to consideration In the meane time wee account these proofes which follow insufficient either against Episcopacy or for the Presbyterie 1 That the Office of a Bishop is not found in Scripture because not in the Epistles to the Romans Corinthians Ephesians for it may bee and is found somewhere else namely in those to Timothy and Titus Secondly though it were not it being a matter of practice discipline and government the universall Tradition of the whole Catholique Church is sufficient to prove it 2 That all Officers of the New Testament are designed and distinguished by Names but by the way then where are Lay-Elders therefore there are no Bishops for we thinke Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are so distinguished and that those who are not properly Bishops are no more called Bishops in Scripture than those are called Apostles who are not properly Apostles Nay this Author sayes so himselfe For he sayes in one place that a Pastor and a Bishop are one thing pag. 4. line 11. and in another that an Apostle is in degree before a Pastor and a Pastor before a Presbyter and Deacon pag. 4. line 20. therefore if a Pastor and a Bishop be but one thing as indeed the words were anciently used and a Pastor be in degree before a Presbyter as is confessed a Bishop also is indeed before a Presbyter which was the thing required to be proved This we take to be as good a Demonstration as any in Euclids Elements That power Ecclesiasticall is not given to one but to many If hee meane any Power Ecclesiasticall wee deny it for a Presbyter may preach and administer the Sacraments alone If hee meane of some onely the sense will be only that a Bishop in the laying on of hands and use of the Keyes ought to bee assisted by Presbyters in the former he is already The other wee shall not much stand upon In Gods name let it bee so and then those places of Scripture which seem to give Presbyters a share in imposing of hands and use of the Keyes will be no objection As for that place of Kings of Nations the sense will bee but this that those who are greater i. e. higher in degree than others ought to doe all things nor for their owne glory and greatnesse but for the good and utility of those whom they governe rather serving them than ruling them according to our Saviours example who though he were greater than his Disciples yet was among them as one that ministred That all incentives causes provocations and beginnings of evill are forbidden wee acknowledge if they bee in themselves so and not by the craft and malice of the Devill for if so the Sacraments and Scriptures themselves the Law and the grace of God must be removed For these by his malice have been made so That the rules of reformation must be taken from the prime times if the pattern be a thing framed by God we grant but Presbyteriall government is not proved such but that all the Fathers and all Christians in all ages throughout the world have agreed to bring forth Antichrist we cannot beleeve Nor that Prelacy and Popery are unsepaable for the former is in many Churches that detest the later Yea according to this Authors sence of Prelacy even in many Churches of Protestants And whereas he sayes that Episcopacie is a step to Popery those who have read Histories with judgement may remember that the abasing of Episcopacie has beene a great and constant designe of the Papacie and that it was so in the Trent Councell no one thing having more exalted that Mother of abominations the See of Rome than the exempting of Presbyters as Jesuits and others from the power and government of Bishops And I pray God that as villifying of Bishops on the one side by setting up the Presbyters and Deacons of Rome above them has begot an Antichristian Monarchie and tyrannie so the casting them off on the other and setting up Presbyters without Bishops over them doe not produce the greatest confusion Anarchy and Schisme that ever was yet in the Church of Christ Which lest it may bee thought I speake more out of interest than reason I shall desire this Author to looke over his owne principles once againe which are these That whatsoever God has not established in his Church is unlawfull but God has not established that some Pastors should be over others therefore this is unlawfull Now to say nothing of the weaknesse of either proposition I desire him to consider whether the Divines of New England doe not hence rationally conclude that since no Pastors by Gods Word have authority over others therefore no Classes nor no Synods have authoritie over others for that every Minister has his power both of Order and jurisdiction immediately from Christ Jesus and therefore to him onely he is responsable for the doctrine that hee teaches the discipline that hee exercises and the censures that hee inflicts and therefore though it may sometimes bee usefull for Ministers to meet in Synods to consult yet the Decrees they make being but of humane authority doe binde none but those who assent to them and those also no longer than till they alter their opinions and that therefore for any number of Ministers in a Synod to take to themselves authoritie over others who are equall to them