Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	church_n	paul_n	timothy_n	1,351	5	10.3835	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20966	A letter of a French Protestant to a Scotishman of the Covenant VVherein one of their chiefe pretences is removed, which is their conformitie with the French churches in points of discipline and obedience.	Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1640 (1640)	STC 7345; ESTC S111088	22,932	58

fearing fled by night and when after many invitations hee would not returne the people shut the doore after him not for any difference of Religion but of State Yet the people being thus alienated from their Bishop was more susceptible of that change of Religion which hapned presently after by the comming of Farell and Viret In the mean while the Duke of Savoy being now strengthned with the Bishops right began to annoy them While they were thus tottering both in Religion and State Calvin came who having got great authority in the Citie took in hand the settling of that fluctuation A matter of great difficulty For to receive their Bishop they durst not fearing to indanger their Religion their Liberties and fall into the hands of their perpetuall enemie the Duke of Savoy To make another Bishop they would not and could not their old Bishop being alive Wherefore they chose to be without a Bishop and rule the Citie by the Syndics being perswaded that their Charter gave them no lesse power But whether they had any Charter to rule the Church with a mingled Consistorie of Clergie and Laitie without any Bishop ipsi viderint let them defend their own right My end is onely to shew that in that change of Discipline Necessity bare more sway then Counsell and Policie then Divinitie Howsoever their actions must not be imputed to the French Churches Geneva being a body apart and having interests of their own peculiar to themselves But the French Churches never unbishopped any Prelate and of them also it may be said that it was Necessitie not any Theologicall decision that made them frame a Church without Bishops For Calvin who had the greatest hand in their Discipline was more enclined to the Episcopacie In his Confession made in the name of the Churches of France and presented to the Emperour Anno 1562. hee professeth it Wee would not abolish saith hee the authoritie of the Church Calvin opuscul in confess Eccles Gallic Ecclesiae authoritatem vel Pastorum aut Super intendentium quibus Ecclesiae regendae provincia mandata est sublatam nolumus Fatemur ergo Episcopos sive Pastores reverenter audiendos quatenus pro suae functionis ratione verbum Dei docent that is of Pastours and Superintendents that have the government of the Church committed unto them Wee confesse then that Bishops or Pastours must be reverently heard as farre as they teach the Word of God according to their function Here is for you a publike Declaration of the French Churches that they disallow not the authoritie of Bishops and if they had power would not take them away In that Confession of faith presented to Francis the first of France I see nothing contrarie to the English Discipline if it bee candidly interpreted For the 30th Article that all true Pastors have equall power under their Universall Bishop Jesus Christ is confessed also by the Church of England for the power which Bishops and Priests have under their Universall Bishop Jesus Christ is equall as they are Priests A preheminence and authoritie indeed they have as Bishops and that by Apostolicall and therefore Divine institution But the power which Christ in the Evangelists immediately giveth to Pastours concerneth only the preaching of the Word and administring of the Sacraments and the power of binding and loosing in foro interiori Herein they are all equall and all Vicars of Christ No Bishop in England but in this sense will subscribe willingly to this Canon of the Councell of Carthage * Conc. Carthag Can. 8. Ut sublimior quidem sedeat sed tamen se collegam Presbyterorum agnoscat That the Bishop sits in a higher degree but yet acknowledges himselfe colleague to the Priests But although the Bishop in his consecration receive no new binding and loosing power in foro interiori besides that which he received when hee was made a Priest yet it is of Apostolicall right that great part of that power diffused in the collective bodie of the Clergie should bee confined to the Bishop lest the keyes of the Church being in too many hands should clash one against another and there should be playing at fast and loose And Calvin agreeth to it I never thought it usefull saith hee to commit the power of excommunication to every Pastor Calvin Epist ad Gasparum Lizetum Nunquam utile putavi jus excommunicandi permitti singulis Pastoribus Nam res odiosa est nee exemplum probabile facilis in tyrannidem lapsus alium usum Apostoli tradiderunt For it is an odious thing and an example not to bee approved and which would soone slip into tyrannie and the Apostles have delivered another custome It is true that Calvin in that Epistle will not have Lizetus to meddle alone with Ecclesiasticall censures and he is in the right since Lizetus was no Bishop But hee declareth plainly that the office of censures must be limited to certaine men not promiscuously used by every Clergy-man of his owne head Else there would bee soone as many petty spirituall Tyrants as there are peevish Ministers in the severall Parishes Had it been in the power of every Priest to receive accusations and pronounce excommunications Saint Paul would not have limited to Timothies knowledge the receiving of accusations nor made him alone Judge of the Priests Calvin indeed aimed at no such matter as the generall pulling downe of Bishops Hee acknowledgeth that in the Primitive Church the a Calvin lib. 2. Instit cap. 4. Art 2. Presbyteri ex suo numero in singulis civitatibus unum eligebant cuispecialiter dabant titulum Episcopi ne ex aequalitate ut fieri solet dissidia nascerentur Priests out of their number would chuse one in every Citie to whom they gave the title of Bishop lest that equality as it is ordinary should breed contentions And in his Epistle to the King of * Calvin Epist ad regem Pol. pag. 140. 141. Editionis Genevensis an 1576. Poland about the reformation of that Kingdome he sets downe to the King the order of the Primitive Church for a patterne where there were Patriarchs and Primats and subordinate Bishops to tye the whole bodie together with the bond of concord And adviseth the King to establish Bishops in every Province and over them an Archbishop and Primate of that great Kingdome And if the b Calvin instit lib 4 cap. 12. Art 6. Sanè si veri essent Episcopi aliquid eis hac in parte authoritatis tribuerem non quantum sibi postulant sed quantum ad Politiam Ecclesiae ritè ordinandam requiritur Popish Bishops were true Bishops hee would allow them some authoritie not as much as they challenge but as much as hee thinkes would serve for the right ordering of Church government That hee would not allow them as much power as they claime no man can wonder at it that knoweth the exemptions which they claime from Royall