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	presbyter_n	1,570	5	10.2756	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76085	The second part of that book call'd Independency not Gods ordinance: or the post-script, discovering the uncharitable dealing of the Independents towards their Christian brethren, with the jugglings of many of their pastors and ministers, to the misleading of the poor people to the detriment of their own souls, and the hurt both of church and state, with the danger of novelties in religion; proving that Independency, is one of the most dangerous sects, that ever appeared in the world, since mortality inhabited the earth. In the which also there is a satisfactory answer given to the principall cavils of him that writ that railing pamphlet, stil'd The falshood of Mr Will. Prynnes Triumphing in the antiquity of popish princes and parliaments. With Doctor Bastvvicks just defence against some calumnies in way of preface. / By John Bastvvick, Dr in Physick.; Independency not Gods ordinance. Part 2	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1645 (1645)	Wing B1069; Thomason E287_9; ESTC R200091	93,218	111

vers 18. he saith That the sound of the Gospell went into all the earth and their words meaning of the Apostles unto the end of the world And in the 15. chapter and vers 18 19. he affirmeth That Christ so wrought by him as he made the Gentiles obedient by word deed through mighty signes wonders by the prower of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about all Illericum he had fully Preached the Gospell and that he had so strived to Preach the Gospel not where Christ was named least he should build upon another mans foundation And in his 1. Epistle to the Thessalonians vers 8. He teacheth That from them the Word of the Lord sounded not onely in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place saith he your faith to God-ward is spread abroad so that we need not to speak any thing Here we see whol Cities and Countries were converted and became Christians And in the Acts of the Apostles there is frequent mention of whole Cities and Countries converted by the miracles and Preaching of the Apostles who the people thought of and looked upon as gods come down from heaven so that all Asia in a short time was converted by the Apostles Ministery for the people seeing the Apostles raise the dead and cure all diseases and that by their very shaddows and by touching but the garments and handcarchiefs or any thing that came from the sick and observing that they were by and by restored unto their former health and beholding their godly life and holy conversation and hearing them preach nothing but those things that tended to make them eternally happy they came in in mighty multitudes through Cities and whole Countries to beleeve the Gospell and were made Christians dayly so that by some one of their miracles they converted more then could meet well in any one Congregation to partake in all acts of worship and to edification and there was still dayly increase upon increase of Christians through both Cities and Countries as both the Scriptures and all the Ecclesiasticall histories relate so that all reason dictates unto any intelligible man that in a short time there must of necessity in every City and through the severall Countries be many Congregations and Assemblies and many Presbytors ordained over them for the ruling and governing and dayly instructing of them and for the building of them all up in the holy faith for all these the Scripture speakes of were such as were really converted or at least made profession of the saith as Simon Magus and were therefore admitted into the bosome of the Church and into the fellowship of the Saints And all good reason will teach men that the Apostles and those Primative Ministers had a more excellent faculty of converting men then our Independent Pastors teachers by whose Ministry yet I never heard of any that were converted for their Congregations al of them consist of such as were converted to their hands but if a few of them without miracles have been so powerfull through City and Country to gather so many congregations and severall Churches here in London and through all the Cities and Towns where they have been preaching their Novelties shall we be so blockish and stupid to think that all the Apostles together and so many other famous Ministers as were for many years alwayes resident in Jerusalem they could all convert no more Christians then could meet in one place or congregation and that at Ephesus and in the other Cities and Countries where the Scripture relateth that there was such infinite multitudes dayly converted and additions of new beleevers upon new beleevers added to the Church that they might ever meet in one Congregation and in one Assembly to communicate in all the Ordinances no reason will perswade this to any man that hath not promised to himself to beleeve nothing but what he seeth with his own eyes But that I may again return to the Church in Jerusalem the pattern of all Churches for government I affirm that in that great and mighty city there were more beleevers than could meet in any one or a few places to communicate in all acts of worship and that there were many Congregations of Christians there in the Apostles times and many years after And besides the many reasons I have in the foregoing Treatise specified for a further demonstration of the truth of that Assertion I shall here adde a few more And amongst other that out of Paul in the first of the Galathians which I onely touched in the foregoing Tractate where he signifieth to the Galathians that he received not the Gospell from the Apostles but from Jesus Christ himself that they might the more cheerfully imbrace it and give credit unto it For saith he I preached the Gospell in Arabia to the heathens before I saw the Apostles and had continued my Ministery three years before I went up to Ierusalem to them Indeed after three years saith he I went up to Ierusalem to see Peter and aboade with him fifteen dayes but other of the Apostles saw I none save Iames the Lords brother not that they were absent and therefore I received not the Gospell from them but from Christ himself In the which words we have not onely a singular Argument to confirm the Preaching and writing of the Apostle Paul to be the Word of God against the Papists but we have also an excellent reason against the new opinion of the Independents to prove many congregations in the Church of Ierusalem for Paul was a diligent frequenter of the Synagogues and Assemblies of the Jews and Christians wheresoever he came as it is often specified in the Scripture where he Preached the Word and Gospell unto the people and it is also cleer and evident by the same Scripture as in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistle of Saint Iames and many other places that Synagogue and Church were Sunonymaes and are often taken one for another as Bishops and Presbyter are for the ordinary Ministers and Preachers of the Word Now by the very light of reason all men that have not resined their understanding will gather That if there had been but one meeting place or one congregation of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem that Paul remaining there fifteen dayes in all that times he would have frequented the Assembly of Believers at lest if he had not preached unto them who was so diligent both in hearing and in preaching in al other places were he came and if there had then been but one meeting-place in Jerusalem and but one congregation without doubt the Apostles would daily have been at their imployments which were to pray with the people and preach unto them for they never were idle nor deserted not their charge Now when they were alwayes imployed in their severall ministeries it is manifest that there were severall assemblies or congregations of Believers in Jerusalem that hindred the