Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	bishop_n	church_n	ephesus_n	1,251	5	11.4920	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75749	A remonstrance, against presbitery. Exhibited by divers of the nobilitie, gentrie, ministers and inhabitants of the county palatine. of Chester with the motives of that remonstrance. Together with a short survey of the Presbyterian discipline. Shewing the inconveniences of it; and the inconsistency thereof with the constitution of this state, being in its principles destructive to the laws and liberties of the people. With a briefe review of the institution, succession, iurisdiction of the ancient and venerable order of bishops. Found to bee instituted by the Apostles, continued ever since, grounded on the lawes of God, and most agreeable to the law of the land. / By Sir Thomas Aston baronet.	Aston, Thomas, Sir, 1600-1645.	1641 (1641)	Wing A4078; Thomason E163_1; Thomason E163_2; ESTC R212696	75,691	128

of an imaginary good they many times covet their owne ruine These sugred baits of parity and libertie infus'd into vulgar apprehensions under the pretext of pietie and reformation are such popular poysons as will soon o're spread the body of the Common-wealth and corrupt or dissolve the Nerves Ligaments of Government conformity to Lawes if not early prevented by those precious Antidotes against Confusion Loyalty and Constancy SECT 5. A Discussion whether they seek to pull downe or advance the Clergie LEt us then ere wee imbrace the thoughts of such a totall subversion of the Fabrick of a Church and State examine whether such Reformers aime at our liberty or their owne advancement whether such bitternesse of Spirit proceed from zeale to truth or emulation of the order c What a Monopoly is this to take away the title wherein the office of all true Pastors is comprehended and to transferre it to one alone among many Christs Throne fol 43. Is it to clip the wings of the Clergie that they soare not too high that these men crie out against Episcopall jurisdiction or rather is it not to Imp out their broken Feathers that they may mount above the reach of all Lawes Is it to regulate any exorbitant power in them or rather is it not to make their power as indefinite This Monopoly is a mysterie of mischiefes view Prelat Church fol. 3. as their numbers are infinite Is it not really to pull downe 26. Bishops and set up 9324. potentiall Popes when in effect the Pastor of every parish Church must be such The consequences these men promise to themselves in their petition seconded by the writing of their fellow-laborers promise no lesse which are First to quit themselves from the circumscription of any Ecclesiasticall Authoritie either in discipline or doctrine d Their petition note 16. View of the Prelaticall Church fol. 16. They pray that the revealed will of God contained in the books of the old and new Testament may be the rule that wee should follow As if certainly this whole State and Church had all this while followed a wrong Guide e Their petition note 17. d That the morall doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles may bee old Englands Canons of which themselves must be Expositors as if all Canonicall obedience were a meere intrusion upon Gods word and had no foundation in Scripture Doe wee not know that Timothy and Titus were by Saint Paul set over the Churches of Ephesus and Crete and in the stile of both the Epistles by the interpretation of the Fathers appeare to have beene Bishops and to have Canonicall power committed to them f 1 Timoth. 1.3 To suppresse false doctrines g 2 Chap. 1.8 To direct time and place for prayer and supplications h 9. To prescribe formes of apparrell i 11. To impose silence upon women k 1 Timoth. 3.2 12. To institute Bishops and Deacons l 1 Timoth. 5.19 To receive accusations and to punish Elders m Ibid. 22. To ordaine Ministers n Titus 3.10 To admonish and reject obstinate Heretiques * 1 Timoth. 1.20 To excommunicate such as blaspheme And these things not transmitted to them as doctrines but as part of their jurisdiction o 1 Timoth. 4 11. These things command and teach and rebuke with all authoritie * Titus 2.15 And let no man despise thee So that here wee may see a foundation of Ecclesiasticall Government laid even by the Apostles themselves and to us enjoyned obedience And though in the infancie of the Gospell when q Matth. 8.20 Luke 9.58 The Son of man had not where to lay his head when his Disciples all past thorow the fire of Martyrdome and no free State scarce any whole Village had received the Gospell even Rome it selfe was for many ages after the seat of the Heathen Emperours r Fox his Martyrs fol. 39. under whose terrible persecutions the Church was scattered into corners and deserts where they could best hide themselves It could not then I say be expected that so exact a platforme of Discipline should be laid down to governe handfuls as was after necessarie to be extended to sway the converted Christian world Yet then did Paul see the necessity both of instituting rules of government putting the execution into the hands of some supreme power To which purpose as Erasmus observes ſ Eras tom 6. fol. 343. Timotheum Paulus in ministerium adoptarat probae indolis juvenem sacris literis eruditum Quoniam autem huic Ecclesiarum curam delegarat sicut Tito instituit eum in sunctione Episcopali Hee elected Timothy a hopefull young man and learned in holy writ into the ministerie and that hee might commit to him the care of the Churches instituted him as also Titus in the office of a Bishop And Saint Hierome t Hieronymus Dialogo adversus Luciferianos Ecclesiae satus in summi Sacerd●ti● dignitate pendet cuis●●on exors quaedam ob omnibus e●●inens detur potest as tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes gives the reason of the necessitie of such superintendencie in the Church for sayes he The safetie of the Church depends upon the dignitie of the chiefe Priest to whom if some extraordinarie power above the rest bee not given there would bee as many schismes in the Church as there are Pastors If then the Institution of Ecclesiasticall Government were Apostolicall the administration committed by Saint Paul himselfe to prime Presbyters or as all ancient Fathers agree to Bishops Let us next see whether such Ecclesiasticall Lawes have beene deduced downe to our fore-fathers in a continued current from the fountaine head the Apostles or are but as these charitable men stile them The Reliques of Romish Tyranny SECT 6. The Ecclesiasticall Lawes agreeable to Gods word I Have in the Epistle formerly set forth the first plantation of the Gospell in England in the time of Lucius u Fox his Martyrs fol. 34. Archbishop Vsher De primord Eccles fol. 54 59. about the yeare 169. when as Elutherius then Bishop of Rome shewes from what principles wee derive our Ecclesiasticall Lawes In his lettet to Lucius King of Britaine he writes thus Fox Martyrs fol. 108. Vsher De Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Primordiis fol 102. Yee require the Roman Lawes and the Emperors to be sent over to you The Roman Lawes and Emperours we may ever reprove but the Law of God we may not w Esutherii rescriptum ad Lucium Britanniae Regem Petistis a nobis Leges Romanas Caesaris vobis transmitti quibus in Regno Britanniae uti voluistis c. Habetis penes vos in regno utramque paginam ex illis Dei gratia per Consilium regni vestri sume legem per illam Dei patientia vestrum rege Britanniae regnum Yee have received of late through Gods mercie in the Realme of Britaine the

truth which yet I must avow The Cheshire Remonstrance improperly called A Petition Secondly abused by an absolute untruth the spurious issue of some brain-sick Anabaptist injuriously fathered upon that County and stiled The answer to that Petition therein disavowing me yet I must give him more thanks that printed the latter then the first That exposed me to censure This invites me to justifie my self to vindicate my Countrey The first starting out naked without the papers to which it relates appears like a shadow without a substance or a Comment without a Text yeelds every man discourse few men satisfaction To explain this Riddle I have inserted that Petition those posititions which were annext and were the occasion of our Remonstrance Thou that art doubtfull or hast censured Ex parte take in evidence the whole truth then give thy verdict The latter hath nothing in it worth my answer nor thy note but that it is meerly fictitious false In toto in qualibet parte Never any such Petition seen in Cheshire never presented to the house noe such persons ever signed it For thy better satisfaction know we have but five Noblemen in Cheshire four of which signed the first Petition of Knights Baronets Knights and Esquires I know not above two in the whole County that do desire the abolition of the Episcopall order we have not in all so many Divines as are said to have underwrit and fourscore and ten of those have signed the Remonstrance most of the rest were never asked And for the Gentry and inhabitants I do confidently beleeve not one of either but will protest against that Libell not one of a hundred but that question being singlely stated whether they desire the continuance of Bishops or to submit to a Presbytery will with their hands witnesse their hearts affections to the preservation of that order established by our Laws the observation of which Laws must preserve the continuation of our liberties But thou wilt lesse admire his boldnesse to traduce a Countrey when thou shalt finde him so impudent as to belie the Gospel To delude the ignorant or negligent Reader he stuffs his Margin full of Texts of which thou shalt not finde one for his purpose He takes upon him to prove that the Apostles alwayes ordained sundry Bishops in every particular Congregation and those of equall power and authority for proofe whereof he quotes Act 11.30 Acts 11. verse 27 28 29 30. C. a lapide Acts 11.31 but take the precedent verses with it and see what thou canst conclude thence a. And in those days came Prophets from Hierusalem to Antioch and there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth thorowout all the world which came to passe in the dayes of Claudius Caesar Then the Disciples every man aecording to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Iudea which also they did and sent it to the Elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul By which it is very probable as is the opinion of C. a Lapide and others was chiefly meant the Deacons (b) Nec alia tunc fuit Diaconorum ratio quam sub Apostolis oblationes enim fidelium quotidianas et anuos Ecclesiae proventus recipiebant ut conferent in veros usus id est partim Ministris partim pauperibus alendis distribuerent Episcopi tamen arbitrio cui oeconomiae suae rationes quotidianas reddebant Calvin Institut lib 4. cap. 4. sect 5. whose office was to collect and treasure up the benevolences for the reliefe of the Presbyters and of the poor as is agreed by all Writers Now he would apply the word Elders which is in the Latine Presbyteri onely to the Bishops whereas that word did usually imply all the Ministers of the Church As it is explained by that vast learned Lyra and the harmony of all the Fathers upon that place of Acts 14. (c) Lyra cap. 14. Acts Tom. 6. fol. 1144. Et cum instituissent illis per singulas Ecclesias Presbyteros c. dicit nomine presbyterorum intelliguntur etiam alii Ecclesiae Ministri ut Episcopi Diaconi huiusmodi Vid. Chrysostome upon the Epist to Titus fol. 1700. And when they had ordained them Elders in every Church c. He sayes by the name of Elders is also to be understood all other Ministers of the Church as Bishops and Deacons and such like All the rest of his quotations are but meere citing of Texts out of a Concordance where ever he findes the word Elder quoting it for a Bishop never observing whether it be for him or against him As to prove them of equall authority he cites 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour 't is a strange conclusion ergo equall in authority (d) Chrysost 1. cap. ad Titum Paulus Tito multorum Episcopor iudicium commisit Likewise to prove that one Bishop is not set over many Churches he quotes Titus who as it appears by the subscription of that Epistle was ordained the first Bishop of the Cretians Saint Chrysostome upon that Chapter sayes Paul committed to Titus the judgement of many Bishops And Lyra (e) Lyra paulus instituit Titum Archi Episcopum Cretensium upon the same Chapter that Paul instituted Titus Archbishop of the Cretians with whom agree our late Writers amongst which Erasmus more fully in his Argument on the Epistle to Titus observes (f) Erasmus tom 6. fol. 354. Titum discipulum suum ob eximias dotes Insulae nobilissimoe Cretae praefecerat Apostolus illic abiens Archiepiscopum consecrarat monet autem quod ipse apud Cretenses per singulas civitates episcopos instituat quos presbyteros vocat idoneum episcopi formam praescribens c. that Paul set Titus his Disciple for his excellent gifts over the Cretians and departing thence consecrated him Archbishop admonishing him to institute Bishops which he also calls Presbyters in every Citty prescribing him the fit endowments of a Bishop With like liberty doth he abuse History unworthily assuming the name of that reverend Patriot Archbishop Vsher Vsher de britannie● ecclesiae primord to patronize his fictions who onely historically recites the severall opinions of Authors concerning the first induceing of the Christian faith into England whether by Iames the son of Zebedec Simon Zelotes Simon Peter or Ioseph of Arimathea ann 63. after Christ (g) Vsher ibid. fol 7. si quidem Metaphrastae credimus apud quem legimus petrum in britann longo tempore fuisse moratum c. ecclesias constituisset episcopos presbyteros diaconos ordinasset 12. Caesaris Neronis rursus Romam reversum esse or others which if all admitted for truths conclude nothing to the governing of the land withou Bishops for some hundred yeers from the first plantation of the Gospel but rather the cleer contrary I shal give thee Reader that

God prescribed unto and cruelly imposed upon us by them for as touching the Prelates themselves we conceive them to be the Popes Substitutes per accidens at the least if not by solemne covenanted allegiance as it may appeare by their Lording it over Gods heritage both Pastors and People and assuming the power of the Keyes onely to themselves contrary to Gods sacred word Therefore we humbly Petition you this honourable Assembly as you tender the glorie of God the Kings Prerogative the Subjects libertie the purity of Gods sacred Ordinances and the welfare of Posteritie or wish the downfall of Antichrist and his adherents to stirre up the zeale and strength wherewith the Lord hath endued you and courag●ously proceed unto your immortall praise against these his mightie enemies and secret underm●n●rs of the good estate of our Church and Common-wealth and utterly dissolve their Offices which give l●fe to the most superstitious practises in or about the worship of God And so together with the ruine of their Antichristian Offi●es and Government we also humbly pray may fall to the ground their impious Courts with all their dependant Officers even from the Chancellors to the Parators their corrupt Canons booke of Articles the English refined Masse-booke of Common Prayer with all their popish significant Ceremonies therein contained the strict imposing whereof hath driven out of this our English Nation many of our most godly and able Ministers and other his Majesties loyall Subjects able both for person and estate to have done good service to God our King and Countrie Secondly our Civill miseries are chiefely these First That the tenths of all our goods should bee taken from us by Parsons Impropriators and in some places by Recusants under a pretence of maintaining the Ministerie and yet notwithstanding wee forced in divers places to maintaine a Ministerie out of the rest of our estates if we will have any and to repaire our Churches which have beene of late very excessive and superstitious Secondly That Sutes in Law are so long unnecessarily detained in Civil Courts before judgement be had wherby divers persons have their estates utterly ruined and others much decayed Thirdly That the Oath in Courts Leet and Baron is usually administred without limitation and before the charge be given so that the Jurors cannot sweare in judgement as the Lord requires they should Fourthly That the Countie Court is kept upon the Munday and thereby we are put unto excessive charges in travelling thereto unlesse wee should labour upon the Lords day next before Fiftly that our Countrie is verie destitute of sufficient Schoolemasters for the educating of our Children and fitting them for the service of God our King and Common-weale Sixtly that there are such excessive fines by some Gentlemen imposed upon their Tenants as that thereby they are both disabled to maintaine their families whence ariseth so many poore people and to doe his Majestie service and pay him lawfull tribute Therefore that these our grievances both Ecclesiasticall and Civill may be redressed and that the contrarie privileges which Christ hath purchased and commanded us to stand unto may be obtained and established WEe most humbly beg that the revealed will of God contained in the Books of the Old and New Testaments and recorded for our practise in the dayes of the gospell may be that Rule which your Honors would be pleased to follow O what glory would it be unto our God our King and Nation what beauty unto our Church what honor unto this Noble Parliament and what confusion to the enemies of his Majesty and loyall Subjects if wee might see the morall Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles made old Englands Canons then might our Ministers have liberty to preach Gods world and administer the Sacraments according to the mind of Christ and our Congregation power to execute Ecclesiasticall Censures within themselves Then might his Majesties Subjects meete together and pray for the King and Queene and their Posterity without punishment and false Calumniation O this would make our peace with God and good men this would gaine our friends and scatter our enemies This would make our Land impregnable and our Souldiers courageable This would unite our Kingdome in peace and cause us and our little ones to sleepe in safety This would cal backe the banished and release the Lords imprisoned this would advance our Mord●cais and hang our wicked Hamans This would replant our conscionable Ministers and supplant our Lordly Pr●lacy This would take away illegall exactions and bring our people to due subjection this would take away extorted Herriots excessive Fines and unlimited Boones for it would learn land-Lords more compassion and Tenants due submission yea this would make a sweete Harmony betwixt Rule and Obedience in all Relations Which that it may now happily be effected we earnestly implore the Lord of Heaven to bend your noble spirits to this great work of God which so sweetly ushereth al other comforts And so we shall ever pray c. The Positions annexed also to the Remonstrance Certaine Positions preached at St. Iohns Church in Chester by Mr. Samuel Eaton a Minister lately returned from new England upon Sunday being the third day of Ianuary 1640. in the afternoone FIrst That the names of Parsons and Vicars are Antichristian 2. The Pastors and Teachers of particular Congregations must be chosen by the people or else their entrance is not lawfull 3. That all things which are of Humane invention in the worship of God under which he seemed chiefly to comprehend the book of Common prayer and the rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed are unsavory and loathsome unto God 4. That Ecclesiasticall censures of admonition and Excommunication ought to be exercised by particular congregations within themselves 5. That the people should not suffer this power to bee wrested out of their hands and usurped by the Bishops 6. That the supreame power in Church matters next under Christ is in the Church meaning as he clearly explained himselfe particular Congregations for he denied all Nationall Provinciall and Diocesan Churches as well as Bishops and so expounded that text Math. 18. Go tell the Church c of particular Congregations or as we call them parochiall Churches 7. That all good people should pray earnestly unto God and not cease to petition the Parliament for the razing of the old foundation meaning as he plainly discovered himselfe the abolishing of Episcopall Government and the establishing of their new Presbyterian Discipline as also for the purging all filth and Ceremonies out of the house of God 8. That they that put not to their hand to helpe forward this worke may justly feare that curse pronounced against Meroz Iudges 5. Curse you Meroz because they come not to helpe the Lord against his mighty enemies there he expresly called the Bishops the mighty enemies of God and his Church Certayn other Positions preached by the same man at Knuttesford a great market Towne in the same County 9

THat every particular Congregation is an absolute Church and is to have all ordinances and officers within it selfe the members of it must be onely Saints these must enter Covenant amongst themselves and without such a Covenant no Church 10. That the power of the Keyes is committed neyther to the Pastors nor Governours but to the whole Congregation and to every particular member of the same and Christ having committed them to every one would of every one demaund an account of them and therfore charged the people as they would answer it at the dreadfull day of judgment to keep the keyes amongst themselves and not to suffer any authority to wrest them out of their hands 11. That it is an heynous sin to be present when prayers are read out of a Book either by the Minister or any other By which and other such Doctrines many of the common people are brought into that odium of the Book of common prayer that divers of them will not come into the Church during the time of Divine Service THe spreading of the foresaid Petition and the publicke and frequent preaching of these and such like seditious Doctrines having stird up a generall discontent in many common people divers of the Gentry without any sinister respect whatsoever but only out of a care of the publicke peace being thereunto induced by the presidents of London and Essex into which the Lords had formerly directed orders for suppression of such disorders did humbly desire the Earle of Darby Lord Lieutenant of the County to joyne in a Remonstrance of the distempers likely to ensue and to represent the same to the house of Peerese Praying their care for prevention thereof THe Remonstrance beeing resolved of upon a conference of many of the Gentlemen of the Country some Divines were sent unto to know if they would joyne in subscription with the Gentry and for the clear carriage and quick dispatch severall Letters were sent into the several hundreds directed to some of the princ●pal Iustices there with copies of all inclosed to procure the subscriptions of their neighbor-hood all of the same contents and subscribed by those few who underwrit this following beeing foureteene persons of quality Gentlemen VPon consideration of the copy of a Petition inclosed from the Freeholders of this County which hath been spread abroad and signed by many hands wee conceive it would much reflect upon the Countrey to let it passe in the names of the Countie without any protestation against it beeing not onely clamorous against the governement of Church and State but against our Country in particular And beeing the shortnesse of time would not permit a generall meeting yet such as wee have consulted both with Divines and others are pleased to approve of the coppy inclosed Therefore for the speedy dispatch of it we have thought fit to send severall Coppies into the severall hundreds intreating that you will be pleased to assemble or send unto all the Gentrie of your hundred and such Divines as you conceive will joyne in it and some of the chiefe Free-holders before wedn●sday next and signe the Paper annexed to the Petition with as many hands of quality as you can get and returne them to Cholmley where wee shall some of us meete and annex them all to the originall it selfe which wee have signed and will so send it up to bee preferred the dispatch is the life of the businesse Wee hope no man will be slack in that so much concernes the Country So we rest your very loving friends We desire that you would be pleased not to let any Coppies be taken and returne it on Thursday next at farthest and let no Papist subscribe whatsoever January 30. 1640 The Direction or Superscription To the Right Honourable the L. Brereton Mr. Doctor Dod and Henry Mainwayring Esquire or one of them and to others the Gentlemen of the Hundred of Northwich This publike carriage I hope will satisfie all ingenious men how injurious such clamours have beene as pretended undue practises to procure Subscriptions And if some few timorous people by pretence of trouble have beene frighted to retract their former Subscriptions J presume no judicious man will conceive it either to reflect on the Gentry or dis-value the substance of the Remonstrance To the Honorable the Lord Bishops Reverend Fathers IN the first part of this Discourse I have had a particular Interest us'd the liberty of my owne expressions out of the sense and fore-sight of my owne endangered Liberty which I apprehend absolutely to depend upon the preservation of your regulated order and Legall Government to be inevitably if not irrecoverably lost by the admission of an irregular Arbitrary Presbytery I denie not but the wisedome of this Age may finde out a new way neither pattern'd by the Apostles nor practiz'd in any Age or State and when it is established by Law I know my part obedience But till then Law being on my side God forbid I should not as freely speak in defence of fundamentall Lawes of Divine institutions as others doe to the subversion of both Such has beene the unhappinesse of my Privacie I am scarce knowne to hardly know any of your persons yet with that Reverence doe I looke upon your Sacred order as an Apostolicall therefore not questionable institution I consider your Predecessours as the Ballast which have poyz'd the Barks of Monarchy to sayle safely in the Sea of Vulgar whose piety and wisedome first prescribed the Medium twixt Tyrannie and Anarchy Till Bishops help'd to reduce the unbounded wills of Princes to the limits of Lawes Kings were Tyrants And where ever they are not there ever followes a popular which is a worse Tyranny Obedience to Kings Conformity to Lawes is a Duty both to God and nature but subjection to the absolute and unlimited wills of men is unnaturall to those that were borne under the protection of Lawes Long ha's this Nation flourished in the equall dispensation of Lawes by Divines Civilians and Common Lawyers Glorious and fortunate have beene the Proficients in all of them They much deceive themselves that think the one shall rise by the fall of the other two If two or three mixt Arbitrary Courts sitting onely in Tearme time shall be thought so prejudiciall to the Common Law what must a Quotidian-Chancery prove in every Parish Sure hee that should but seriously consider the condition of the Advocates in the Low Countries Geneva and in all places where the Presbytery hath got footing would burne his Barr Gowne and begin a new profession at the apprehension of such a change No doubt Rebus sic stantibus At this instant there are many able men ready to supply your voyded seates and an instant extinguishment of all the lights of the Church cannot be fear'd But if all preferment for humane learning shall be thus taken away in the next Age wee are liker to degenerate to the Barbarisme of the Greekes then arive at their perfection The