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
A53688	The doctrine of the saints perseverance, explained and confirmed, or, The certain permanency of their 1. acceptation with God & 2. sanctification from God manifested & proved from the 1. eternal principles 2. effectuall causes 3. externall meanes thereof ... vindicated in a full answer to the discourse of Mr. John Goodwin against it, in his book entituled Redemption redeemed : with some degressions concerning 1. the immediate effects of the death of Christ ... : with a discourse touching the epistles of Ignatius, the Episcopacy in them asserted, and some animadversions on Dr. H.H. his dissertations on that subject / by John Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1654 (1654)	Wing O740; ESTC R21647	722,229	498

Emperour so I am certaine it is most remote from the likeness of any thing that in this affaire we are instructed in from the Scripture Plainly this language is the same with that of the false Impostor Pseudo-Clemens in his pretended Apostolical Constitutions At this rate or somewhat beyond it have you him ranting Lib. 2 cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Popes with all sorts of Persons whatever Priests Kings and Princes Fathers and Children all under the feet of this Exemplar of God and Ruler over men A passage which doubtless eminently interprets and illustrates that place of Peter's Epistle ch 5. v. 1. 2. 3. The Elders that are among you I exhort who also am an Elder and a witness of the suffering● of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over God's heritage but ●eing Examples to the flock But yet as if the man were starke mad with wordldy pride and pompe He afterwards in the name of the Holy Apostles of Jesus Christ commands all the Laity forsooth to honour love and feare the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 2. Cap 20. And that you may see whither the man drives and what he aimes at after he hath set out his Bishop like an Emperour or an Estern-King in all pompe and glory He addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The paying of tribute to them as Kings is the Issue of these descriptions that they may have wherewithal to maintaine their pompe and greatness according to the institution of our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles But I shall not rake farther into this dunghil nor shall I adde any more instances of this kind out of Ignatius but close into one insisted on by our Doctour for the proof of his Episcopacy Dissert 2. Cap. 25. 7. Saith he Quartò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopo attendite ut vobis Deus attendat ego animammeam libenter eorum loco substitui cuperem quod Anglicè optimè dicimus my soul for theirs qui Episcopo Presbyteris Diaconis obsequuntur I hope I may without great difficulty obtaine the Doctours pardon that I dare not be so bold with my soule as to jeopard it in that manner especially being not mine owne to dispose of Upon these and many more the like accounts do the Epistles seeme to me to be like the Children that the Jewes had by their strange Wives Neh 13 who spake part the language of Ashdod and part the language of the Jewes That there are in them many footsteps of a gracious Spirit every way worthy of and becoming the great and holy personage whose they are esteemed so there is evidently a mixture of the working of that worldly and carnal Spirit which in his dayes was not so let loose as in after times For what is there in the Scripture what is in the genuine Epistle of Clêmen's that gives countenance to those descriptions of Episcopacy Bishops and the subjection to them that are in those Epistles as now we have them So insisted on What titles are given to Bishops What Soveraignty Power Rule Dominion is ascribed to them Is there any thing of the like Nature in the writings of the Apostles In Clemens the Epistle of Polycarpus c. Or any unquestionable legitimate off-spring of any of the first Worthies of Christianity Whence have they their three orders of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons upon the distinct observation of which so much weight is laid Is there any one word iota title or syllable in the whole book of God giving countenance to any such distinctions Eph. 4. 8. We have Pastors and Teachers Rom 12. 7.8 Him that teacheth him that exhorteth him that ruleth and him that sheweth mercy Philip. 1. 1. We have Bishops and Deacons and their Institutions with the order of it we have at large expressed 1 Tim 3. 1. 2. Bishops and Deacons without the Interposition of any other order whatever Deacons we have appointed Acts the 7. And Elders Acts 14. 23. Those who are Bishops we find called Presbyters Titus 1. 5. 7. And those who are Presbyters we find termed Bishops Acts 20. 28. So that Deacons we know and Bishops who are Presbyters or Presbyters who are Bishops we know but Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as three distinct orders in the Church from the Scripture we know not Neither did Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians know of any more then we do which a few instances will manif●st saith he speaking of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Bishops and Deacons as in the Church at Philippi this man knowes but the third order he is utterly unacquainted withal And that the Difference of this man's expressions concerning Church Rulers from those in the Epistle under consideration may the better appear and his asserting of Bishops and Presbyters to be one and the same may the more clearly be evidenced I shall transcribe one other Passage from him whose length I hope will be execused from the usefulness of it to the Parpose in hand Pag. 57. 58. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so it seemes was the manner of the Church in his dayes that their officers were appointed by the consent of the whole Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bishops of whom he was speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And sundry other discoveries are there in that Epistle of the like nature It is not my designe nor purpose to insist upon the parity of Bishops and Presbyters or rather the Identity of office denoted by sundry Appellations from these and the like places this work is done to the full by Blondellus that our labour in this kind were that the purpose in hand is prevented He that thinkes the Arguments of that Learned man to this purpose are indeed answered throughly and removed by D. H. in his fourth dissertation where he proposes them to Consideration may one day thinke it needful to be Able to distinguish between words and things That Clemens ownes in a Church but two sorts of Officers the first whereof he calls sometimes Bishops sometimes Presbyters the other Deacons the Doctour himselfe doth not deny That in the Judgment of Clemens no more were instituted in the Church is no less evident And this carries the conviction of it's truth so clearely with it that Lombard himselfe confesseth hos solos ministrorum duos ordines Ecclesiam primitvam habuisse de his solis praeceptum Apostoli nos habere Lib. 4. Sen. D. 24. Lib. 3. ext It seemes moreover that those Bishops and Deacons in those dayes as was observed were appointed to the office by and with the consent of the People or whole body of the Church no less do those words import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Doctour indeed renders these words applaudente aus

as if they had found the whole far dell of the mass in it's perfect dress and their breaden God in the middest of it It is no otherwise in the case of Episcopacy men of these latter Generations from what they saw in present being and that usefulness of it to all their desires and interests having entertained thoughts of love to it and delight in it searching Antiquity not to instruct them in the truth but to establish their prejudicate Opinion received by Tradition from their Fathers and to consult them with whom they have to do what ever Expressions they find or can heare of that fall in as to the sound of words with what is now insisted upon instantly they cry out Vicimus Io Paean ● what a simple generation of Presbyters and Independents have we that are ignorant of all Antiquity or do not understand what they read and look upon Hence if we will not believe that in Ignatius his dayes there were many Parish Churches with their single Preists in subordination to a Diocesan Bishop either immediatly or by the interposed power of a Chore● Episcopus and the like and those Diocesans againe in the precincts of provinces laid in a due subjection to their Metropolitans who took care of them as they of their Parish Priests every individual Church having no Officer but a Presbyter every Diocesan Church having no Presbyter but a Bishop and every Metropolitan Church having neither Presbyter nor Bishop properly related unto it as such but an Arch-Bishop we are worse then Infidels truly I cannot but wonder whether it doth not sometimes enter into these men's thoughts to apprehend how contemtible they are in their proofes for the fathering of such ●n Ecclesiastical distribution of Governours and Goverment as indeniably lacquied after the civil divisions and constitutions of the times and places wherein it was introduced upon those holy persons whose soules never once entered into the secrets thereof Thus fares it with our Doctour and his Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall only crave leave to say to him as Augustus of Quintilius Varus upon the loss of his Legions in Germany under his command Quintili Vare reade legiones Domine Doctor redde Ecclestas give us the Churches of Christ such as they were in the dayes of the Apostles and down to Ignatius though before that time if Hegesippus may be believed somewhat deflowred and our contest about Church-Officers Goverment will be nearer at an end then perhaps you will readily imagine Give us a Church all whose members are holy called sanctified justified living-stones Temples for the Holy Ghost Saints Believers united to Christ the head by the Spirit that is given to them and dwelleth in them a Church whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that doth nothing by it's members apart that appertaines to Church-order but when it is gathered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church that being so gathered together in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acting in Church things in it's whole body under the Rule and presidence of it's Officers A Church walking in order and not as some who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom saith Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as calling the Bishops to the Assemblies yet do all things without him the manner of some in our dayes he supposeth no● to keep the Assemblies according to the command of Christ give us I say such a Church and let us come to them when they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Churches in the dayes of Ignatius appeare to have been and are so rendred in the Quotations taken from his Epistles by the Learned Doctour for the Confirmation of Episcopacy as I said before the contest of this present digression will quickly draw to an Issue Being unwilling to go too far out of my way I shall not 1 Consider the severalls instanced in for the proof of Episcopacy by the Doctour Seeing indeniably the Interpretation must follow and be proportioned by the General Issue of that state of the Church in the dayes wherein those Epistles were writ or are pretended so to be if that appeare to be such as I have mentioned I presume the Doctour himselfe will confess that his witnesses speak not one word to his business for whose confirmation he doth produce them Nor 2ly Shall I insist upon the degeneration of the Institutions and Appointments of Jesus Christ concerning Church Administrations in the mannagement of the succeeding Churches as principled and spirited by the operative and efficacious Mystery of Iniquity occasioned and advantaged by the Accommodation of Ecclesiastical affayres to the civil distributions and Alotments of the political state of things in those dayes nor 3 Insist much farther on the exceeding dissimilitude and inconformity that is between the Expressions concerning Church-Officers and a●●aires in these Epistles whence ever they come and those in the writings of unquestionable credit immediatly before and after them as also the u●●er silence of the Scripture in those things wherewith they so abound The Epistle of Clemens of which mention was made before was written for the composing and quieting of a division and distemper that was fallen out in the Church of Corinth Of the cause of that distention that then miserably rent that congregation he informs us in that complaint that some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were wrongfully cast from the ministry by the multitude he tells you that these were good honest men faithful in the discharge of their duty for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though they were unblamable both in their conversation ministry yet they removed them from their office To reprove this evill to convince them of the sinfulness of it to reduce them to a right understanding of their duty order walking in the fellowship of the gospel what course doth he proceed in what arguments doth he use He minds them of one God one Christ one body one faith tells them that Wicked men alone use such waies practises bids them read the Epistle of Paul formerly written to them upon occasion of another division and to be subject to their own Elders all of them leave off contending quietly doing the things which the people or the body of the Church delivered commanded Now had this Person writing on this occasion using all sorts of Arguments Artificial or inartificial for his purpose been baptized into the opinion esteem of a single Episcopacy superintendent whose Exaltation seemes to be the design of much which is said in the Epistles of Ignatius in the sense wherin his words are usually taken would yet never once so much as bid them be subject to the Bishop that Resemblance of God the Father supplying of the place of Christ nor told them how terrible a thing it was to disobey him nor pawned