Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	apostle_n	day_n	week_n	1,368	5	10.0170	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30650	A vindicaton of churches, commonly called Independent, or, A briefe answer to two books the one, intituled, Twelve considerable serious questions, touching church-government, the other, Independency examined, unmasked, refuted, &c. : both lately published by William Prinne ... / Henry Burton ...	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1644 (1644)	Wing B6176; ESTC R20892	61,118	78

ordaining supplying instituting new Rites Orders Canons for the Churches peace and welfare I answer to the Proposition 1. That the Apostles themselves had no other libertie to doe any thing about the calling planting ordering and regulating of Churches but what they had immediarely given them by Christ and his Spirit 2. This liberty so given them reached no further then to those things onely which were given them in charge and which they accordingly as faithfull Stewards did practise concerning the Churches Even as Christ himselfe being the Son of God and set over his house was faithfull in all things doing nothing but what he had by speciall Commission and Command from the Father So as if the Son himselfe God blessed for ever took not the liberty to himself to doe what himselfe pleased as Mediator though as the Sonne he thought it no robbery to be equall with God the Father but did every thing as he had received commandment from him how much lesse have the servants of God any liberty to doe what pleaseth them but that and those things alone which they have in command from their Master If therefore they who prosesse to succeed the Apostles in their severall generations will challenge the same liberty which the Apostles had and used about the Churches of God they must first of all shew us their immediate Commission from Christ as the Apostles had Secondly They must all shew us that what they doe in Church-matters under colour and pretence of Apostolicall liberty is none other but what they have by expresse command from Christ by his Spirit And thirdly because they are not able to shew this they must use their liberty no further then the lists and limits of Scripture doe permit which holds forth an exact and perfect rule for all precisely to observe without the least variation As knowing that severe law of God often used in Scripture and wherewith as with a bounder-stone the whole Book of God is closed up and that with a solemne protestation of Christ himselfe If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall diminish ought thereof God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the Holy Citie But some will haply object This is meant not in point of Church-government Discipline Rites Ceremonies as left to mans liberty to ordaine adde supply institute according to the diversity of the lawes and customes of every Nation but in matter of Doctrine Story and Prophecy To which I answer though sufficiently noted before and now in one word if God were so exact about the forme of the Tabernacle a type of Christs Church under the Gospell to have all things observed according to the Patterne even unto the least pin what reason can any reasonable man give why Christ the same Law-giver and patterne it selfe should be lesse carefull over his Church in the New Testament so as to leave it at six and seven to the liberty of all Kingdomes and Nations of the world to set up in the Church what Government Discipline Rites Ceremonies Canons they pleased upon what pretence soever as for the Churches peace and welfare Hath not the opening of this one sluce let in such an Inundation of all manner of humane inventions in this kind as hath wel-nigh drowned the whole world in all manner of superstition and errour Therefore my deare brother Prinne assure your selfe not all the wits not all the learning in the world will be able to assert this your assertion but that it must of necessity fall to around with its owne weight and there brother let it lie or father die and bury it there whence it came All that Christ appointed is exactly to be followed though Christ was not so â—â—act in circumstantials under the Gospell because 1. That was a typicall and figurative worship 2. Christ now looks more to substantialls Joh. 4. 24. wherein he is more strict 1 Cor. 5. And where you say that as in the Apostles times Christians multiplied so also their Churches Church-Officers and their Church-Government Discipline varied Consider that here was no variation of the Rule but by degrees the rule of Church-government and Discipline was perfected not varied The Temple was seven yeares in building first hewing squaring then erecting stone after stone timber after timber each in his proper place here was no variation of the frame and forme of the Temple all this while but the worke went up day by day till it came to perfection according to the patterne in writing given to David by the Spirit Even so while the spirituall Temple is framing the daily goings up of it by order after order and rule after rule is no variation but a graduall tending to perfection till all be finished as we now see the whole frame of Church-government for all true Evangelicall Churches so compleated in the New Testament as nothing under the paine aforesaid may either be diminished or added to it And the same Orders are prescribed to all the Churches So ordaine I in all Churches saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 17. So for the collection for the Saints and for the first day of the weeke for publick meetings as before the same order he gives to the Church of Corinth which he doth for the Churches of Galatia 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. So Officers chosen and ordayned in every Church Act. 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. 7. So as if one Church for the smalnesse of it have fewer Officers and another Church for the largenesse of it more in number as the Church in Jerusalem had need of seven Deacons both for the magnitude of the Congregation and the multitude of the poore therein Act. 6. yet this makes no variation in the forme of Church-government as differing one from another either for substance or circumstance saving onely socundum magis minus as a little man is a man as well as the tallest man In a word those Arguments which you by way of derision set downe in your owne forme of words with their Ergoes for as much as they are of your own devising I therefore leave them with you to consider better of them Onely one I cannot passe by without wrong to Christ to his word to his Spirit to his Apostles Every man say you in his Infancy is borne destitute of Religion of the use of speech reason understanding faith legs c. Ergo He ought to continue so when he is growne a man Yet this is the maine Argument of some Independents say you O brother Of what Independents As whence this Argument Because they hold that in nothing they ought to swerve from the exact Rule Gods Word for the government of Churches And doe you compare the Scripture as it was in the Apostles time to a child in his Innocency destitute c So as if we will not transgresse the bounds of Scripture for

That the maintaining of such a liberty as you assume here is so we have in part shewed already from the Scripture whence you are not able to bring the least shadow of reason to maintain it Nay we need go no further for the disfranchising of this your liberty but your own words Your words are asistata they cannot cohere in any true Theologicall sense For first we ought not to assume or pretend a liberty as left us of God when we want our evidence and are not able to produce our Charter out of the Magna Charta the Scripture And this brother not you nor any man can do Again nothing is more presumptuous then to attempt to mingle heaven earth together that is to mingle Christs Kingdom with the kingdoms of the world or to these to frame and fashion that which what is it else but to set up a Babylonish Church-government Did the Apostles thus Did they frame Christs Kingdom Church-government to the laws and customes of the Romance Empire Or did they vary their orders for Church-government Discipline according to the different manners and customes of those Nations countreys or Provinces where they planted their Churches Had they one order for the Church of Corinth and another for the Churches of Galatia and a third for the Churches of Asia and the rest No But so ordain I in all Churches saith the Apostle And concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye So also for making of Ministers and other Church-officers Act. 1. 14. 23. Again Your Church-government must be conceived to be consonant to Gods Word yet with this restriction or limitation that it be also consonant to the Laws and Government under which we live You speak indeed like a pure Lawyer one that will stand for your Profession were this the way to uphold it But cannot your Law and our Gospel cotton together unlesse the Gospel weare the Laws livery like to your Serjeants gown made up of two severall colours ' or unlesse Law and Gospel be woven together into a linsey woolsey garment But what if your Law present stand still in force for Church-government without being repealed Must the Gospel be brought again under your Prelaticall Church-government Or rather why should not a generall law to use your words be enacted to inhibite all formes of Church-government and Discipline which are not every way consonant to Gods Word without this addition And to the Laws and Government under which we live For certainely if the Lawes and Government of the State under which we live be good and just there is no need why you should put upon Christs kingly Government in his Church such hard conditions as not to be admitted but so farre as it is consonant to mans Laws As Tertullian said when upon the Emperour Tiberius his motion to the Romane Senate that Christ might be admitted and enrowled among Romes gods and the Senate refused because they had made a Law that none should be chosen for a god unlesse first propounded by the Senate Ergo nisi homini placuerit Deus non erit Deus Therefore if it please not man God shall not be God So let it be lawfull for me to say If it please not man not the Senate Christ shall not be King his kingdome shall have no place in this or that Nation As if the good Laws of a civill State and the good Laws of Christs kingdome could not ought not to stand together in their distinct forms unmixed when certainly a State stands strongest while most consonant to Gods Word and to the Church-government and Discipline of Christ and not when Christs kingdome and Government is made sutable to the Laws and customes of the State Famous was that Answer of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius King of Britaine when this Countrey of Britaine first received the faith being the first Province that received it where the Gospel began freely to be preached without impeachment or inhibition of the Prince as the * Story saith and that without any ceremonies at all King Lucius sending to Eâ—eutherius for some modell or form of Church-Government and Discipline he received this Answer That Christ had left sufficient Order in the Scripture for the Government of the Church and not onely for that but also for the regiment of his whole Realme if he would submit himself to follow that Rule You require of us saith he the Romane Ordinances with the Imperiall Statutes also to be sent unto you which you desire to practise The Romane Laws we may find to be faulty but Gods Laws never You have received of late through Gods mercy in the Realme of Britaine the law and faith of Christ you have with you both volumes of the Scriptures Out of them therefore by Gods grace and the counsell of your Realm take you a law and by that law through Gods sufferance rule your kingdome Now this Eleutherius being the 14th Bishop of Rome by Platina's account it shews unto us the great difference between that and after-times wherein the Mystery of Iniquity grew up to its height in assuming such an unlimited liberty to set up such a Church-Government and ceremonies of humane invention as were haled in by the head and shoulders But brother Prinne you see here how in those purer primitive times even the Bishop of Rome himselfe was so farre from admitting a Church-Government sutable to the severall lawes and customes of every Nation as you would have it as he tels King Lucius he hath both the Testaments by the rule whereof he should not onely see the Church to be governed but his own Realme also Ergo the Kingly government of Christ in his Church is not to be fashioned and moulded according to the lawes and customes of temporall and civill States but contrarily the lawes of Civill States are to be reduced to the rule of Gods Word But you adde also And manners of their people that is in their severall Countries and Common-weales Surely this reflects mine eye upon that Reformation begun in King Edwards reigne But now what Church-Government and Discipline was to be set up Why the manners of the people must be the line and plummet to regulate this building by The people of England had beene so long rooted in a superstitious Egyptian soyle but because fat and filling their flesh-pots with Onions and Garlick they could the better brook the burthens which their Taskmaâ—â—ers the Prelates inured their shoulders withall And withall they must have their Masse-Service though translated out of the Roman into the English language This in King Edward his letter to the Cornishmen standing up for their Masse-book stilled the babes when they understood the English Service-booke was no other then the Romish Masse clad in an English weed though since it hath put off many of those ragges but not all it should So much it importeth to have

of arrogancy schisme câ—ntumacy and lyable to such penalties as are due to these offences Good Brother be not so legall What if that resolution of an Assembly and that Generall Law for the confirmation of it be such as the conscience of godly people cannot without sinne submit thereunto Must they either violate their consciences or bee undone by your unavodable intolerable penalties as both to suffer in their good names for Arrogant contumatious Schismatickâ— yea and in their Consciences too under the guilt of these and to bee liable to I wot not what penalties besides and no waies to seeke an exemption from it Why good Brother if we should goe and live under the Turkish Government and could not in conscience turne Turkes in the Religion there by Law established yet there is a way to seeke an Exemption from it namely by becomming Tributary to that State as many Christians doe Good Brother let 's not have any of Dracoes Lawes executed upon Innocents And remember how not long agoe the Prelates served us we could not have the benefit of Law of Appeale no exemption from bloud letting and eare-cropping and pillorying c. And shall wee now turne worse persecutors of the Saints then the Prelates were Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco saith that heathen Princesse But in the margent you put some places of Scripture to prove this But truly when I well view the places I find them not to answer to what you would seeme to prove by the Quotation The first is 1 Cor. 14. 32 33. For the Spirit of the Prophets is subiect to the Prophets And what of this Ergo the Spirit of all the Prophets in England must be subiect to the Prophets in the Assembly upon paine of being guiltie of Arrogancy Schisme Contumacy and liable to such penalties as are due to these offences O brother Prynne you must as well note as quote the place But let me note it for you The Apostle there speaks both to and of the Church of Corinth when assembled together in one place that the Prophets should observe order and give place each to other in Prophecying as the reason is rendered and not of any such Assembly of that sublime and supreame Authoritie or the onely Prophets to whom all other Prophets wheresoever dispersed must be subject Ver. 33. For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints Which place also is no lesse wide from your purpose What Will there be no peace but all confusion unlesse all be subject to the Assembly upon such paine as before The Apostle speaks here of the Order to be observed in every Church as in all the Churches of the Saints The other places quoted by you are no lesse misapplyed Will they prove trow you blind obedience But come on brother if you will needs put us upon such hard exigents as to give us no quarter without present laying down our Armes and cause and so captivating our consciences to the Dictates and Decrees of men If you will make no covenant with us but upon this one onely condition that you might thrust out all our right eyes and if there bee no other remedy yet give us leave to capitulate with you about some terms of accomodation that wee may not altogether betray our consciences and liberties which our Redeemer Christ hath so dearly purchased for us And the first and main is this First brother make it cleare unto us that an Assembly of men learned pious what you will living in ages succeeding the Apostles have or ever had infallibility of judgement so as to say as Acts 15. 28. It pleased the holy Ghost and Us to make these Decrees that so wee may without further scruple of conscience submit and conforme thereunto But I say you must give us very good assurance and evidence hereof that they are infallibly guided by the holy Ghost that when they shall say It pleased the holy Ghost and Us we may safely believe them For when you can resolve us of their conclusions no further then as they conceive to bee consonant to the word of God Alas Sir you leave us in a Wood or Maze whence no extricating of our selves without Ariadnes thread Gods word to set us where wee were before For you knew what variety of conceits many men have Quot capita tot sententiae This is the first and main condition we stand upon and truly it were sufficient alone We might in a second rank but not equall to the former name a selfe-deniall and humble spirit c. You know the story of the Monkes of Bangor comming before Austin the first Archbishop of Canterbury whom they seeing to fit in his Pontificall Chaire and not rising up nor moving unto them they left him as a man noâ— sent of God And so if wee should behold men carrying themselves loftily over their brethren who are not of their Counsell we should be apt to suspect that Christs Spirit is not there because there is not the spirit of humility neither the Spirit of truth to be found A Cardinall in the Conclave at Viterbium after almost three yeares agitation about the election of a new Pope as many yeares as we have been about to set up a Reformation and the foundation not yet laid each Cardinall ambitiously a spiring to be the Pope one of them rose up and said Domine c. let us uncover the roose of this Chamber seeing the holy Ghost cannot get in unto us through so many tiles But this by the way And so enough of this question The third and fourth Questions I come now to your third and fourth question But lest my answers may prove too voluminous and so fastidious to everyday-newes Readers I shall in the rest contract my selfe And this I must doe by trussiâ—g up your questions within the list of a Syllogisme respectively For as I noted before all your questions are rather conclusive then interrogatory rather positive resolutions then unresolved questions The summe therefore of your third and fourth questions for this dependeth on that is reduced into this Syllogisme That which hath sufficient if not best warrant for it in the New Testament the examples of the Primitive Church c. most prevents heresies schismes injustice is to be received as a true and undoubted Church-Government and to be preferred before that which hath no such expresse warrant in Scripture no patterne for it in the Primitive or best reformed Churches c. But the Presbyteriall forme of Church-government if rightly ordered hath sufficient if not best warrant for it in the New Testament c. The Independent not so Therefore the former is to be preferred and received before the latter without any long debate The Answer Both your Propositions are lame and interfeere one against the other Sufficient if not best warrant will not prove so sufficient a warrant as if there be found a better

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